Iran’s last-ditch proposal to avoid nuclear sanctions

IRAN has made a last-ditch proposal to break the deadlock over its nuclear programme as world powers warned it still risked being taken to the UN Security Council within a week for possible sanctions.

A top Iranian official yesterday said the crisis could be resolved if France created a consortium to produce enriched uranium on Iranian soil, a proposal that stops short of Western demands Tehran suspends the sensitive nuclear activity.

“The best solution to dispel the worries about Iran’s nuclear activities is not to demand a suspension of enrichment,” the deputy head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, said.