scott
06-06-2006, 05:50 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13165152/
U.S. offers Iran nuclear technology as incentive
Bush sees Tehran’s initial response to West’s package as a ‘positive step’
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday that Iran’s initial response to a package of incentives and threats on the nuclear impasse “sounds like a positive step to me.”
“We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously,” Bush said in Laredo, Texas, where he was speaking about immigration overhaul. “The choice is theirs to make.
“I have said the United States will come and sit down at the table with them so long as they are willing to suspend their enrichment in a verifiable way,” Bush said. “So it sounds like a positive response to me.”
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana laid out the potential rewards and consequences in a visit to Tehran. He later told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by phone that the Iranians had said they would need time to consider the proposal, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Solana called the discussions “very useful and constructive,” McCormack said.
Bush said in Laredo that he wanted to resolve the issue with Iran diplomatically.
Time for consideration
Earlier in the day, the administration said it would give Iran “a little bit of space” to consider the package but added that the offer was not open-ended.
“It’s a matter of weeks, not months,” McCormack said, echoing the vague deadline set out by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the package was presented to Tehran.
U.S. officials would not discuss specifics, saying that Iran needed time to review the package and ask questions in private.
“We want to give this every opportunity to succeed,” McCormack said. “The diplomacy, I would say, is at a sensitive stage.”
Promise of nuclear technology
The package includes a promise of Western technical help in developing peaceful civilian nuclear energy if Iran stops enriching uranium, a waiver of U.S. legal restrictions to allow export of some agricultural technology, access to U.S. aircraft parts or new Boeing Co. planes to upgrade Iran’s aging fleet and U.S. and European backing for Iran to join the World Trade Organization, diplomats and others said.
The proposal was agreed on last week by the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany. Those nations would be expected to move for Security Council sanctions such as travel and financial restrictions on Iranian officials if Tehran does not take the deal or if negotiations fall apart.
Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the initiative contains “positive steps” but also some “ambiguities.”
“There are robust measures on both sides, both the incentive side as well as the disincentive side,” McCormack said. “It presents the Iranian government with a very clear choice on both sides of the road.”
The incentives package offers other economic and political rewards, but also contains the implicit threat of U.N. sanctions if Iran remains defiant.
In a breakthrough last week, the United States agreed to join in multinational talks on the package.
Hoping for 'a modern Iran'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in Germany with French President Jacques Chirac, urged Tehran to respond positively to the incentives, saying that they show the world’s interest in the success of “a modern Iran” and its sincerity in seeking a diplomatic solution.
“I hope that Iran shows a positive reaction and understands that there is a broad interest in a diplomatic solution to this conflict,” she said.
Chirac echoed Merkel’s hopes that the package would bring progress.
“We truly hope ... that we can reach an accord that respects the demands of the IAEA toward Iran,” he said, referring to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which has demanded Iran once again suspend its enrichment of uranium, a process that can create fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.
Mottaki told Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso by phone that Tehran would “seriously study” the incentives, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Mottaki also said Iran had the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, the ministry said in a statement.
He added that the United States was to blame for the lack of trust between Washington and Tehran, and said he felt the international community shared Iran’s distrust of the U.S., according to the statement.
Iran says its nuclear development is for peaceful production of nuclear energy, but Washington, the European Union and others accuse Tehran of covertly trying to build a nuclear arsenal.
In recent days, Iran’s leadership has alternated between talking tough and signaling it is open to negotiations — perhaps an attempt to portray to the Iranian public that it is not backing down even as it considers reversing its refusal to suspend enrichment.
Additionally, the U.S. offer to join in direct talks with Iran might have taken Tehran’s top officials off-guard.
Oil supply at risk
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, normally a hard-line critic of the United States who insists that Tehran has a right to enrichment, said over the weekend that a breakthrough in negotiations was possible and welcomed the U.S. offer to join talks, while rejecting preconditions.
But threats by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to disrupt the world’s oil supply if Tehran is punished over its nuclear program reflected Tehran’s nervousness.
Although other Iranian officials have repeatedly ruled out using oil as weapon, his comments propelled oil prices to $73 a barrel Monday. Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter and the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
U.S. offers Iran nuclear technology as incentive
Bush sees Tehran’s initial response to West’s package as a ‘positive step’
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday that Iran’s initial response to a package of incentives and threats on the nuclear impasse “sounds like a positive step to me.”
“We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously,” Bush said in Laredo, Texas, where he was speaking about immigration overhaul. “The choice is theirs to make.
“I have said the United States will come and sit down at the table with them so long as they are willing to suspend their enrichment in a verifiable way,” Bush said. “So it sounds like a positive response to me.”
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana laid out the potential rewards and consequences in a visit to Tehran. He later told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by phone that the Iranians had said they would need time to consider the proposal, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Solana called the discussions “very useful and constructive,” McCormack said.
Bush said in Laredo that he wanted to resolve the issue with Iran diplomatically.
Time for consideration
Earlier in the day, the administration said it would give Iran “a little bit of space” to consider the package but added that the offer was not open-ended.
“It’s a matter of weeks, not months,” McCormack said, echoing the vague deadline set out by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the package was presented to Tehran.
U.S. officials would not discuss specifics, saying that Iran needed time to review the package and ask questions in private.
“We want to give this every opportunity to succeed,” McCormack said. “The diplomacy, I would say, is at a sensitive stage.”
Promise of nuclear technology
The package includes a promise of Western technical help in developing peaceful civilian nuclear energy if Iran stops enriching uranium, a waiver of U.S. legal restrictions to allow export of some agricultural technology, access to U.S. aircraft parts or new Boeing Co. planes to upgrade Iran’s aging fleet and U.S. and European backing for Iran to join the World Trade Organization, diplomats and others said.
The proposal was agreed on last week by the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany. Those nations would be expected to move for Security Council sanctions such as travel and financial restrictions on Iranian officials if Tehran does not take the deal or if negotiations fall apart.
Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the initiative contains “positive steps” but also some “ambiguities.”
“There are robust measures on both sides, both the incentive side as well as the disincentive side,” McCormack said. “It presents the Iranian government with a very clear choice on both sides of the road.”
The incentives package offers other economic and political rewards, but also contains the implicit threat of U.N. sanctions if Iran remains defiant.
In a breakthrough last week, the United States agreed to join in multinational talks on the package.
Hoping for 'a modern Iran'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in Germany with French President Jacques Chirac, urged Tehran to respond positively to the incentives, saying that they show the world’s interest in the success of “a modern Iran” and its sincerity in seeking a diplomatic solution.
“I hope that Iran shows a positive reaction and understands that there is a broad interest in a diplomatic solution to this conflict,” she said.
Chirac echoed Merkel’s hopes that the package would bring progress.
“We truly hope ... that we can reach an accord that respects the demands of the IAEA toward Iran,” he said, referring to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which has demanded Iran once again suspend its enrichment of uranium, a process that can create fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.
Mottaki told Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso by phone that Tehran would “seriously study” the incentives, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Mottaki also said Iran had the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, the ministry said in a statement.
He added that the United States was to blame for the lack of trust between Washington and Tehran, and said he felt the international community shared Iran’s distrust of the U.S., according to the statement.
Iran says its nuclear development is for peaceful production of nuclear energy, but Washington, the European Union and others accuse Tehran of covertly trying to build a nuclear arsenal.
In recent days, Iran’s leadership has alternated between talking tough and signaling it is open to negotiations — perhaps an attempt to portray to the Iranian public that it is not backing down even as it considers reversing its refusal to suspend enrichment.
Additionally, the U.S. offer to join in direct talks with Iran might have taken Tehran’s top officials off-guard.
Oil supply at risk
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, normally a hard-line critic of the United States who insists that Tehran has a right to enrichment, said over the weekend that a breakthrough in negotiations was possible and welcomed the U.S. offer to join talks, while rejecting preconditions.
But threats by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to disrupt the world’s oil supply if Tehran is punished over its nuclear program reflected Tehran’s nervousness.
Although other Iranian officials have repeatedly ruled out using oil as weapon, his comments propelled oil prices to $73 a barrel Monday. Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter and the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.