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Iran to Give Nuclear Response in Two Months
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that Tehran would respond to a nuclear compromise offer by world powers in two months, despite international calls for a halt to Iran’s controversial nuclear work and a formal reply by June 29, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 21). “We will study the offer and, God willing, will give our opinion at the end of Mordad,” the month that ends Aug. 22 under the Iranian calendar, Ahmadinejad said. U.S. President George W. Bush objected to that timetable. “It seems like an awful long time for a reasonable proposal. ... It shouldn’t take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal,” he said. “I said weeks not months and I believe that is the view of our partners,” Bush said. “We’ll come to the table when they verifiably suspend” (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, June 21). A top U.S. official said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her European counterparts, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, agreed yesterday to hold firm to the current deadline, the New York Times reported. “They agreed to stick to the current timeline,” the official said. “That timeline is still the end of the month.” The official said that if Iran failed to respond, the countries involved would “start moving down the other pathway” toward U.N. sanctions. One senior official told the Times that Iran was unlikely to stop uranium enrichment efforts. “We already have the capability to enrich uranium, and we can hide a small pilot program anywhere underground if they put too much pressure on us,” he said. Experts predicted Tehran would offer a counterproposal in order to buy time. “It seems that Iran will not come out and say that it accepts the proposal anytime soon and will try to kill more time,” said Issa Saharkhiz, an Iranian analyst. “The nuclear program has created solidarity and unity inside the country,” he said. “By sticking to its policy the government thinks it can force the West to offer a better deal and it can appear like the winner inside the country” (Nazila Fathi, New York Times, June 21). Ahmadinejad today reiterated that Iran would not suspend enrichment, Agence France-Presse reported. “The nuclear fuel cycle belongs to all Iranians and everyone has a right to use it. All people insist on maintaining this right,” he said. “If science and technology are good, they should be good for all. ... We have never been cruel to anyone and we will not bow to cruelty,” he added (Agence France-Presse II/Outlook India, June 22). Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said today that Iran does not appear close to producing an atomic weapon, AFP reported. “I do not think that we are about to be confronted with Iranian nuclear arms,” said D’Alema (Agence France-Presse III, June 21).
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