THE EU/IRAN: France, Germany and the UK are considering offering Iran a light-water nuclear reactor in return for its abandoning a uranium enrichment programme that the West suspects is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.
The proposed offer came the day after Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said the three European countries were working on a "bold" offer to Tehran.
But the US could scupper the plan. A US official said the Bush administration would react to the plan with a "real sense of scepticism". He said such a reactor could contribute to Iran's alleged ambition of securing a nuclear weapon.
Senior US officials are to join their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia in London on Friday to discuss details of a new offer to be put to Iran.
A Foreign Office spokesman in Britain said the European offer to Iran "is still under discussion. A light-water reactor is under consideration." The West claims Iran is covertly building a nuclear weapons capability but Tehran says its nuclear programme is for purely civilian purposes.
Western diplomats, familiar with the package being drawn up, said Iran could be given the light-water reactor to prove EU support for a civil energy programme.
But Washington has an effective veto on any European offer. A big European construction company - the French have the most experience - would be needed to build the reactor, but no company would want to take on such a project for fear of crossing the US, which has unilateral sanctions against Iran in place. Any European company would seek guarantees from Washington that it would not be penalised.
The Bush administration is divided over Iran. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, supports the EU's decision to offer incentives to Iran, but may decide the offer of a nuclear reactor is a step too far. Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, favours a more hawkish approach.
The reactor was a key factor in the breakdown of the EU-Iran negotiations last August, a collapse which ended Iran's freeze on uranium enrichment.
In Geneva a year ago, Tehran says, the EU troika promised it would include a light-water reactor when it tabled ambitious proposals for settling the dispute. But the offer was removed when the Europeans delivered their set of proposals last August. The proposals were broad, including economic, trade, political, security and nuclear sweeteners. But the Iranians said they had been cheated and lied to, broke off the talks, and lifted their suspension on uranium enrichment.
Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, sought to mediate discreetly behind the scenes to prevent the breakdown. Senior IAEA officials and other diplomats agreed the Iranians had a genuine grievance.
The main reason for the European failure was the reluctance of the US to back the proposal, suggesting the US was prepared to see the two years of talks fail. For the European gambit to succeed, Iran would need to make the first move on a resumption of negotiations by reinstating their freeze on uranium enrichment work.
That work is much more advanced than a year ago. Tehran reiterated yesterday that there was no turning back from its enrichment work at Natanz, the underground complex south of Tehran. "Iran's decision to preserve this right [ to enrichment] is definite and irreversible," said the Iranian foreign ministry.