EU to court Iran over nuclear programme

Date: 28/07/05

In a bid to end Iran's nuclear enrichment programme, the EU is to put forward a deal in the first week of August, a Brussels-based diplomat said.

The diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous, said the EU would set out what is being called a "global offer" to the Iranian authorities following the inauguration of President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, expected next Thursday (4 August).

Although the practical details for presenting the plan were not disclosed, the deal will be based on the EU offering trade concessions in return for a permanent halt to nuclear-enrichment activities.

"It will be based on the 15 November understanding," said the diplomat, referring to an agreement signed in Paris last year between the previous Iranian administration and the EU3 of France, Germany and the UK.

The understanding committed Iran to refrain voluntarily from the "manufacture and import of gas centrifuges". It also committed the Iranians to halt the separation of plutonium and to admit international nuclear inspectors.

But this week outgoing President Mohammed Khatami warned that Iran would restart work on gas centrifuges whatever the EU's offer, raising the stakes ahead of the talks.

Article reports that the European Union was planning to suggest a deal to Iran in the first week of August 2005, in a bid to end the country's nuclear enrichment programme. President Mohammed Khatami had warned only few days earlier that Iran would restart work on gas centrifuges whatever the EU's offer was going to be.