U.S. Agrees to Iran Incentives

The United States will join the European Union in offering Iran economic incentives to abandon its uranium enrichment program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today (see GSN, March 10).

“We will make clear that we will lift our objections to an Iranian application to the [World Trade Organization] and that we are prepared to lift an objection to the licensing of spare parts for Iranian commercial aircraft,” Rice told Reuters in a Washington interview.

“The decision that [U.S. President George W. Bush] has taken is that the United States will make an effort to actively support the EU3 negotiations with the Iranians,” Rice added, referring to negotiations with Iran led by France, Germany and the United Kingdom (Reuters, March 11).

The three nations, meanwhile, told EU president Luxembourg today in a letter that they would support referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council if Tehran ends it current suspension of uranium enrichment activities or breaks other nuclear obligations, Reuters reported.

The statement was coordinated with Washington’s announcement backing the EU on incentives for Iran, diplomats said.

“Progress is not as fast as we would wish” in negotiations that began in December, the letter says. It adds, however, that if Iran maintains a freeze on uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities and cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the issue could be resolved through diplomacy.

“If on the other hand, despite our efforts Iran does not do so, then as has been implicit in the agreements reached with Iran and well understood by all concerned, we shall have no choice but to support referring Iran’s nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council,” the letter says. The Bush administration has pushed to refer the matter to the council, but has so far found little support among other members of the IAEA’s Board of Governors.

The letter did not mention possible sanctions on Iran, even though Washington had pushed for such a reference, diplomats said (Reuters, March 11).

Meanwhile, a Russian chemical plant in Siberia is reportedly ready to ship nuclear fuel for the nuclear power reactor Moscow is constructing in Iran, according to Agence France-Presse.

 “The fuel has been manufactured and is stored at the plant, to be delivered at demand,” said factory chairman Vladimir Razin (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 11).

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