Iran has given a mixed response to a package of incentives, including an offer of a nuclear reactor, put forward in an attempt to persuade it to stop nuclear fuel work. “This (offer) contains positive points, such as nuclear reactors for Iran,” Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told a news conference in Cairo. “At the same time there are problems and ambiguous points.” Larijani said that Iran would not be threatened but that it was prepared to negotiate. Larijani said the offer from the US, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China included a proposal for regional stability talks in which, he said, Iran were ready to take part. Larijani was in Cairo for meetings with Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, and the Arab League, where he sought to reassure Arab nations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Moussa said that Larijani presented “full assurance that their program is peaceful” and that he discussed with him concerns among Gulf Arab countries over the programme. Hamid Reza Asefi, a foreign ministry spokesman, earlier said that Iran was still examining the proposals, but he insisted that Iran was not stalling. George W Bush, the US president, said on Friday that Iran would have weeks, not months, to decide whether to accept the proposals or face the prospect of penalties. The package put forward at the UN is aimed at restarting negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme. It included concessions by the US aimed at getting Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment. The US would provide Iran with peaceful nuclear technology, lift some sanctions and join direct negotiations.The US has said it will join talks – despite the lack of diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran – as long as Iran first suspended uranium enrichment, the most sensitive part of the atomic programme, and the processing of raw uranium. Iranian officials, who dismiss Washington’s claims that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons, have consistently ruled out suspension and called for talks without preconditions. The diplomatic focus is set to shift on Monday to Vienna, with a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A report by Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the UN body, revealed last week that, on the day the incentives package was delivered, Tehran increased the scale of uranium enrichment after having reduced it two months ago. The timing was on Sunday described as a “coincidence” by Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iranian ambassador to the IAEA. “It was a technical decision by our scientists to resume on this day. It was definitely not a provocation,” Mr Soltanieh said. The Associated Press reported on Sunday that a US position paper was designed to rally the IAEA board’s 35 member countries with a claim that the permanent members of the UN Security Council had agreed to “pursue measures[to] pressure the Iranian regime to change course”.

Portions of Story provided by Aljazeera and Financial Times

Share on Facebook