After months of defiant rhetoric over its nuclear programme, Iran yesterday formally rejected an international demand that it suspend uranium enrichment to allay western fears that it wants to build an atomic bomb.
The rejection, in a 23-page response submitted by the country's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, to a broad-ranging incentive package, set Iran on a collision course with the UN Security Council. It has passed a resolution requiring Iran to suspend uranium enrichment by August 31st or face the prospect of economic sanctions.
In what was being seen as a bid to split the council, Iran's response came with detailed counter-proposals, including a call for future talks under a "new formula".
Mr Larijani, who has criticised the incentives offered, couched Iran's answer in conciliatory language, and described it as constructive. "Iran is prepared to hold serious talks," he told Iranian state television. "The representatives of the six world powers should return to talks to reach an understanding about all the issues mentioned in the offer, including nuclear issues, long-term technical and economic co-operation, as well as security co-operation in the region."
Mr Larijani had presented the response to diplomats from Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and Switzerland, which has represented American interests in Tehran since relations were severed after the 1979-81 embassy siege. Few details of the document, described by one western diplomat as "comprehensive", were available last night. However, the Iranian request for a "new formula" is thought to include a proposal that temporary uranium enrichment suspension could be open for negotiation in further talks.
That idea is almost certain to be rejected by the US, Britain and France, which believe Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at bomb-making, rather than domestic electricity as the Iranians insist. However, it could be sufficient to persuade the security council's other two permanent members, Russia and China - both of whom have extensive economic ties with Tehran - to oppose sanctions.
America, which has declined to rule out military action, reacted cautiously to the Iranian response, with John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, promising to study it carefully. He said: "From this definitive response, we will see whether they are now prepared to abide by their obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and convince the world that their intentions are peaceful, as they claim. But if it doesn't meet with the terms set by the security council, we will proceed to economic sanctions."
The council's permanent five members, along with Germany, presented the incentive package to Iran in June. It proposes a range of economic sweeteners, including civilian nuclear technology, in return for Iran abandoning its solo nuclear activities for international co-operation.
Iran initially greeted the offer positively. But analysts in Tehran say the Islamic leadership has turned against it, seeing it as a front for the US desire for regime change. "They think that if they accept, the Americans will come up with something else, such as human rights, to destabilise them," one source said. "They think the nuclear issue is simply the current American strategy for undermining them. So they've decided that the nuclear issue is the one over which to have a confrontation, since it's a national issue supported by most Iranians."
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority over the matter, said on Monday the country would continue "on the nuclear path". He dismissed the West's claims that it was trying to develop nuclear weapons as a pretext for what he called its opposition to the development of Islamic countries. The leadership's stand is bolstered by a belief that high oil revenues will enable it to withstand any UN sanctions. - (Guardian service)