In an effort to end the stand-off over Iran's nuclear program, senior European negotiators on Friday submitted a sweeping proposal to Tehran, offering economic and political incentives and support for its ambitions to generate nuclear power if it abandons activities that could develop nuclear weapons.
Europe offers Iran a 'final' proposal
By Katrin Bennhold and Steven R. Weisman
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2005
PARIS In an effort to end the stand-off over Iran's nuclear program, senior European negotiators on Friday submitted a sweeping proposal to Tehran, offering economic and political incentives and support for its ambitions to generate nuclear power if it abandons activities that could develop nuclear weapons.
But by calling an extraordinary session on Tuesday of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Europeans also appeared to signal that their proposal was an ultimatum that if rejected would make the prospect of sending the case to the UN Security Council more likely.
The proposal was handed to the new Iranian leadership by ambassadors from France, Germany and Britain, the three countries that have spearheaded a diplomatic initiative to dissuade Iran from pursuing ambiguous nuclear activities that might be used to make an atomic bomb.
Tehran said it would examine the document and respond within two days.
France's foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, on Friday urged the Iranians to accept what he called an "ambitious and generous" offer and warned that if they did not accept it the world would face "a major international crisis."
Diplomatic activity has been feverish since Iran announced last week that it was renouncing its pledge of last year to suspend efforts to create its own nuclear fuel by converting uranium. The announcement was made in the days leading up to the inauguration Wednesday of the newly elected Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, until recently the mayor of Teheran.
Douste-Blazy reiterated demands that Teheran keep such conversion activities suspended, arguing that it would get the support necessary for nuclear power generation that would make such conversion techniques obsolete.
"We are ready to support a civilian, but of course, a nonproliferating, nuclear program," the minister said, adding that the latest proposal paved the way to "new perspectives for Iran in its relations with Europe, and the rest of the international community."
But the bottom line of the proposal is to seek a pledge by Iran to end activities, which Iran insists on being able to continue. There is considerable doubt that Iran will accept the proposal, at least right away.
Details of the package were not made public by Douste-Blazy's office even after its submission to Teheran, but they were disclosed to The New York Times by diplomats familiar with its content. The diplomats asked not to be identified, even by country, because the package was supposed to be secret and they did not want to make it public before they went to Iran.
The proposal raises the possibility of Tehran acquiring light-water reactors and nuclear fuel, the diplomats said.
The proposal also lays out a full spectrum of relationships with the West, from technology sharing and trade preferences to security guarantees, they said.
But it also makes clear that Iran cannot have what is called a closed fuel cycle in which every aspect of producing fuel, using it and disposing of it is in control of Iran. Instead, the proposal suggests that Iran be given supplies of fuel and then transfer the spent fuel to another country.
Iran would be obliged to continue its current suspension of the conversion of raw uranium into a form of gas that could then be enriched for use as a fuel with the use of centrifuges that international inspectors have found in Iran.
A diplomat said that the proposal suggests that nothing in any agreement with Iran should be interpreted as "affecting the inalienable rights of all the parties to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," adding: "What it doesn't do is say that Iran can enrich uranium. The implicit meaning is clear."
Some diplomats said they did not think Iran would be surprised by the basic outlines of the proposal, because the Europeans have held firm while preparing it, in spite of Iranian demands that it would not accept any proposal in which it would be barred from uranium conversion and enrichment.
The European package is to be accompanied by what one diplomat said was "a whole bunch of carrots" that might entice Iran to change its practices.
These include, he said, giving Iran favorable treatment in international conferences and security arrangements in the region and accelerated negotiations on trade and cooperation with the European Union. In addition, Iran would be offered spare parts and equipment for aircraft, an offer that had been previously disclosed after it won the approval of the Bush administration earlier this year, since the supply of the parts would require American waivers.
The entire package is a culmination of a two-year dance of diplomacy by the Europeans with the Bush administration staying at a distance. The administration disdained the European initiative with Iran last year, but reversed itself in the spring after consultations among President George W. Bush and the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, with officials in Europe.
A European official said the proposal to Iran was likely to be controversial, no matter how attractive or unattractive it is to Iran. "The Iranians are certain to say that it is not enough, because that's what they usually say right away," said this official. "But others are bound to say that all these incentives being given to Iran should be given to other countries, too."
The dance with Iran went through an odd contortion last week, with Iran saying - even before the new president was installed - that it would go ahead and break its earlier pledge to suspend uranium conversion and enrichment pending the outcome of current negotiations. Europeans warned that if Iran did so, they would immediately seek sanctions.
The belief in the West now is that Iran decided to do so because Iranian clerics and other leaders who control the process did not want Ahmadinejad to be tainted by having his first decision to be to walk away from the discussions.
On the other hand, Iran is said by the West to be playing a shrewd game. It is not unilaterally breaking its promise to suspend uranium enrichment. Instead it is calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency to come to its nuclear facilities to break the seals and install new monitors and sensors so it can assert to the world that, while it is proceeding with uranium processing, not a single gram of fuel will go to a weapons program. The atomic agency, meanwhile, is slow-walking its plan to install the sensors and monitors to give the Europeans time to refine their proposal.
That Iranian tactic, said several Western diplomats, seems to be designed to convince wavering board members of the atomic agency - notably Russia, China and several countries with similar enrichment programs - that it is simply doing what other countries do and should be allowed to continue. The Iranian tactic raises doubts that if Iran continues to defy Europe and the United States, then the West will not be able to get the agency to refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Katrin Bennhold reported from Paris for the International Herald Tribune. Steven R. Weisman reported from Washington for The New York Times.
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