Iran Rejects Enrichment Halt as Solana Visits

Source: Al-Manar TV, 14-06-2008

Iran rejected on Saturday any suspension of its nuclear enrichment program, after the EU's top diplomat handed Tehran a world powers' offer of economic benefits to try and persuade it to stop such work. "If the package (from six major powers) includes suspension it is not debatable at all," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed an offer from world powers to Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on ending the nuclear crisis, Solana's spokeswoman said in a statement. "Solana handed the proposal to Mottaki," said the statement. The proposal offers Iran economic and trade incentives in exchange for a suspension of uranium enrichment activities, a concession Tehran has until now steadfastly refused to make.

Germany and the five permanent United Nations Security Council members -- Britain, the United States, France, Russia, and China -- prepared the new package. Details of the package have not been released, but diplomats say it contains mainly cosmetic changes to the original 2006 offer which was refused by Iran.

Mottaki said earlier that Tehran has offered "very important" proposals in an effort to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program. "Our nuclear activities are following their normal course," said Mottaki, in Paris for an Afghanistan donor conference Thursday. Iran has consistently rejected a freeze in the on-off talks with Solana, who negotiates for the six powers.

Iran has also presented its own proposals on a range of issues, such as drug control, environmental conservation as well as the nuclear issue, but it has not offered to give up uranium enrichment.