Posted on 08/06/2005 10:19:23 AM PDT by mazack
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran rejected Europe's proposal for ending the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, saying Saturday it was "unacceptable" because it did not give the country the right to enrich uranium.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the package of incentives offered fell short of Iran's "minimum expectations" and the government would send its official rejection to the Europeans later Saturday or Sunday.
"The European proposals are unacceptable ... the package is against the spirit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and against the provisions of the Paris agreement," he said on state radio. "The proposals do not meet Iran's minimum expectations."
The Paris Agreement was reached between Iran and Britain, France and Germany — the three European countries negotiating on behalf of the 25-member European Union. Under the deal, signed in November in Paris, Iran agreed to continue suspension of uranium enrichment and all related activities, including uranium conversion, until negotiations proceed for a political settlement.
Enriched uranium can be used in the production of nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.
Iran has accused the Europeans of wasting time, saying continued suspension depended on progress in the talks. Tehran says failure to make progress in talks does not prevent it from reopening the Isfahan uranium conversion facility.
The French, British and German foreign ministries declined to comment until they had received and studied Iran's response, spokesmen said.
Asefi said the primary reason for Iran's rejection was the European failure to include Tehran's right to enrich uranium.
"We had already announced that any plan has to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium," he said.
New Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Saturday that his foreign policy would focus on good relations with the rest of the world, but he rejected outside pressure on his government to change course — an apparent reference to the growing international confrontation over Iran's nuclear program.
Without directly mentioning the controversy, Ahmadinejad said his government respected international norms but "would not follow illegal decisions that violate rights of the Iranian nation."
"I don't know why some countries do not want to understand the fact that the Iranian people do not tolerate force," Ahmadinejad said.
On Friday, the Europeans sought to entice Iran into a binding commitment not to build atomic arms by offering to provide fuel and other long-term support to help Iranians generate electricity with nuclear energy.
The proposal did not mention the previous agreement that allowed Iran to enrich uranium. Iran also insists it has a right to enrich uranium under the treaty.
The Bush administration backed the European offer, which came as a diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea into giving up its atomic weapons program stalled.
The European proposal offered greater economic, political and security cooperation if Iran agreed to the plan.
Iran has long claimed its nuclear program was solely for the peaceful production of electricity, even though it has vast oil reserves. Washington charged the real aim was to produce arms. The discovery of clandestine aspects of Iran's program raised worries among other nations and pressure had mounted on Iran.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it would hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss safeguards in Iran. The agency has repeatedly warned Iran not to resume uranium conversion at its facility at Isfahan until an IAEA monitoring system is in place.
The facility converts raw uranium, known as yellow cake, into a gas that is the feedstock for enrichment. The IAEA board could refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for consideration of sanctions.
Asefi said the meeting will have no legal justification.
"It's to bring political pressure on Iran. It's a psychological war," he said.
A summary of the EU proposal said the Europeans acknowledged Iran's right to nuclear energy and promised to help it develop "a safe, economically viable and proliferation-proof civil nuclear power generation and research program."
The 34-page proposal promised Iran a long-term supply of enriched uranium from other countries, on condition that spent fuel was returned. Iran also could buy peaceful nuclear technology, opening the door to such deals as Russia's $800-million contract to build a reactor in the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr and supply fuel.
In return, the Europeans called on Iran to make a "legally binding commitment not to withdraw" from the nuclear treaty, as North Korea did, and to agree to permit surprise inspections by the IAEA and abandon all uranium activities, including conversion, enrichment and reprocessing.
The EU nations also say Iran must stop construction of its heavy water research reactor in the city of Arak. Nuclear experts consider heavy water reactors a danger because they use higher-grade plutonium suitable for weapons use.
They say the Arak reactor can yield enough plutonium from spent fuel to make one atomic bomb a year.
They won't stop till they have nukes.
Millions of lives hang in the balance.
Makes me wonder if Bush somehow already knew that they would do this.
Bush has more stones then Ronnie ever had.
Here's a question.
Why the the mulletheads reject this so quickly,
rather than draw out the process as Saddam did
so many times?
Actually, they won't stop until they've delivered exploding nukes to Tel Aviv, New York, DC, Rome, London and ultimately Jerusalem.
I think that is a good question, because it would seem far more rational for Iran to use North Korea's stratagem of simply lying. By just bargaining in bad faith it would seem that they could buy themselves quite a bit of time.
My own guess is that there are two factors in their rejection: (1) the mullahs are not rational and won't act in rational ways and (2) they are so close to having a nuclear weapon that they believe that they can assure their personal survival by detonating a test weapon in shorter order than we can marshall a coalition in the face of their intransigence.
Their irrationality probably makes them blind to the fact that we can (and I believe will) unilaterally act to prevent their development or use of nuclear weapons, and they incorrectly assume that we would go to the time-consuming trouble of yet again building a coalition of the willing.
I wonder what big, bad France is going to do now?
UK is led by Blair who is doing a deliberate straddle, between the continentals whose bottom line is "the US must not act" and the US and UK security people whose bottom line is "Iran can't get nukes". So they are trying to buy the same horse for the nth time. They make it easy - here is a whole passle of goodies and checks in return for one little lie.
The Iranians want the real concession - and admission from the Europeans that Iran has a right to enrich uranium - because they want a real wedge between the EU and the US if the US acts. They see all the concessions as desperation - correctly - and are holding out for something big enough diplomatically (they hope, anyway) it might actually stop the US from attacking - from the Europeans, not from the US.
Basically, the Iranian position is "we will accept your gifts and lie to you again, if and only if you denounce the US campaign to stop us from getting nukes as illegitimate". The US position is directed at the Europeans, and it is "offer them all the carrots you like, it won't remotely work, we will play along, they will still try to get nukes, and you know it". The Europeans are twisting between unwillingness to just watch Iran get nukes and unwillingness to be seen authorizing the US doing anything anywhere. They want to buy their way out of that dilemma, and would offer anything - money, shame, their womenfolk - to avoid taking a real position.
Senior British civil servant types I've met, who work on this stuff, are dismissive of US efforts on the subject, while they clearly understand the Iranians are lying outrageously and actively seeking nukes. I've told them Iran was going to get nukes and the world was going to watch. They've told me that would not happen.
I'd be happy to be wrong.
Gotta love the Eurotrash cowards. Iran might get a nuclear bomb and the only thing they are worried about is that the US will act to stop it.
If an a-bomb goes off in NY, I would suspect Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea, in that order.
You are right that they are cowards. They don't know they are cowards, strangely enough. They think Americans are comically clueless and direct, the greatest straight men of all time. They think the nutjobs - who in fact are also entirely direct and transparent, as long as you watch what they are doing and pay no attention to their endless stream of great whopping lies each funnier than the last - are irrational animals. They think they themselves are the epitome of sophistication and cunning, and the pretzels they contort themselves into are masterworks of world-historical statecraft.
Nearly everyone in the piece is utterly insane and millions of innocent people will probably die.
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