EU diplomats to meet Iran over nuclear programme

Iranian officials will meet with a senior EU representative carrying a package of rewards and penalties meant to stop Tehran’s uranium enrichment program tomorrow – including new US offers to lift bans on deliveries of some sensitive technologies, diplomats said.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had been expected to present the proposal to Iranian officials some time this week, but the precise day had not been previously divulged.

Solana will submit the package to foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki and possibly Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator.

Solana was to fly to Tehran tonight after winding up a brief Middle East tour.

He pledged further EU aid to Palestinians at a joint news conference with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Officials with Solana have stressed his mission was to present the package as is, adding he would not negotiate with the Iranians.

The six-nation package offers economic and political incentives if Tehran relinquishes domestic enrichment, which is used to generate power but can also produce weapons-grade uranium for nuclear warheads.

The offer agreed on in Vienna on Friday by the US, Russia, France, Britain and China – the five permanent UN Security Council nations – plus Germany, also contains the implicit threat of UN sanctions if Iran remains defiant.

In a breakthrough last week, the United States agreed to join in multinational talks on the package if Tehran suspends enrichment.

Details of the basket of perks and penalties have not been made public. But an earlier draft shared in part with The Associated Press offered help in building nuclear reactors that produce reduced amounts of waste that could be reprocessed for nuclear arms and a guaranteed supply of fuel as well as an offer to supply European Airbus aircraft for Tehran’s civilian fleet.

Diplomats today revealed that Washington has sweetened the offer originally drawn up by France, Britain and Germany by saying it will lift some bilateral sanctions on Tehran such as a ban on Boeing passenger aircraft and related parts if Iran agrees to an enrichment freeze.

One of the diplomats also said in the package agreed on Friday, Washington would be prepared to take some “dual-use” technology off its banned list of exports to Iran. The term is used for products and material that have military as well as civilian uses. The diplomat declined to go into details.

Iranian officials have sent conflicting signals on the initiative, reflecting a possible struggle within the leadership on how to react.

Additionally, the US offer to join in direct talks with Iran might have taken Tehran’s top officials off guard.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, normally a hard-line critic of the United States who insists that Tehran has a right to enrichment, said on the weekend that a breakthrough in negotiations was possible and welcomed the US offer to join talks, while rejecting preconditions.

But threats by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to disrupt the world’s oil supply if Tehran is punished over its nuclear program reflected Tehran’s nervousness.

Khamenei on the weekend said the United States and its allies would be unable to secure oil shipments passing out of the Gulf through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean.

Although other Iranian officials have repeatedly ruled out using oil as weapon, his comments propelled oil prices to $73 (€56.32) a barrel today.

Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter and the second-largest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow urged reporters to withhold judgment on Khamenei’s remarks until Iran has had a chance to weigh the six-nation package.

“Let people look at it,” he said. “I understand why commodities markets may be unsettled by a comment like that, but over time, if this succeeds, the commodities markets are going to be very happy and so should we all be.”