Tehran signals interest in new offer

Michael Theodoulou, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: July 03. 2008 3:14PM UAE / July 3. 2008 11:14AM GMT

The Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday a “new process” was underway following a recent exchange of proposals between Tehran and major world powers. Richard Drew / AP

Iran is sending out tantalising signals of interest in an offer from the West to end the stand-off over its nuclear programme, even hinting it may curtail uranium enrichment for six weeks as a prelude to negotiations.

Critics of Iran suspect Tehran is playing for time or has been shaken by the growing number of reports that Israel might attack its nuclear sites.

Other observers believe Tehran is sincere and wants to prepare the ground for better relations with the United States if Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, wins the presidential elections in November.

There has been a spate of conciliatory statements on the nuclear issue from Iran this week.

Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister, said yesterday a “new process” was underway following a recent exchange of proposals between Tehran and major world powers.

Iran, Mr Mottaki said, was studying “with a constructive regard” the package deal hand-delivered to Tehran last month by Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on behalf of the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

The proposals include technological, political and economic incentives, provided Tehran suspends uranium enrichment. Senior Iranian figures promptly rejected this condition outright while expressing some interest in the rest of the package.

But at a press conference in New York this week, Mr Mottaki refused to repeat Iran’s standard statement that it would never give up its right to uranium enrichment, even though journalists asked him the question directly four times.

In a further sign Tehran may be preparing to make concessions, Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, spoke positively about the incentives package presented by Mr Solana.

Referring to the United States, Mr Velayati told the local Jomhuri Islami daily on Tuesday: “Those who are agitating against our interests want that we reject the offer. As a consequence, it’s in our interests to accept it.”

Underlining frictions within the Iranian leadership over the nuclear issue, Mr Velayati said Iranian officials must avoid making “provocative and illogical declarations”. There was little doubt he was admonishing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, whose strident rhetoric on the nuclear issue and goading of Israel is regarded as counterproductive.

The Iranian president has recently lowered his profile on the nuclear issue, leaving it to be addressed publicly by such pragmatic hardliners as Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker, Mr Velayati and Mr Mottaki.

Meanwhile, Fararu, an unofficial Iranian news agency close to Iran’s reformists – and opposed to the president’s hardline stance – suggested on Tuesday that Iran may be willing either to suspend or freeze uranium enrichment for a six-week period.

Mr Solana, in his mission to Tehran last month, is said to have proposed that Iran freeze its enrichment activities at their current level for six weeks while the UN Security Council held off on any new sanctions. It is believed the suggestion was verbally communicated by Mr Solana as it does not appear in the text of the proposals.

The so-called “freeze for freeze” mechanism, similar to a “time out” suggestion first made in January by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is regarded as face-saving mechanism for both sides to enter negotiations.

However, Iranian analysts said Tehran would refuse any attempt to make a suspension of its uranium enrichment permanent. For any deal to be successful, Iran would have to be allowed to continue enriching uranium in some capacity, they said. Iran will also seek to extend the six-week deadline to allow more time to set the agenda for talks, they said.

A foreign office spokesman in London told The National: “[As] part and parcel of any pre-negotiations which would be limited to six weeks to prepare the way for the opening of any formal discussions, the EU three plus three [Britain, France and Germany plus the United States, China and Russia] would refrain from any new action at the Security Council and Iran would refrain from any new nuclear activity, including the installation of any more centrifuges.”

“We’ve had no formal acceptance of the offer yet,” the spokesman said.

Sceptics believe Tehran is adopting a softer tone to wrong-foot the West and stave off further sanctions while it presses ahead with its nuclear programme, which the United States and some of its allies suspect is aimed at developing weapons. Tehran insists its programme is solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.

Some also suggest Tehran is shifting position because it has been rattled by reports the regime’s enemies are preparing military action against Iran. This week’s New Yorker magazine carried a report by the veteran investigative reporter Seymour M Hersh that the United States has increased its covert operations inside Iran aimed at toppling the regime.

Large scale Israeli military exercises last month raised fears Israel was readying for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. In Washington, George W Bush sought to tamp down speculation that Israel will launch a military strike against Iran before he leaves office. He said all options are on the table but military action would not be his first choice.

“I have made it very clear to all parties that the first option ought to be: solve this problem diplomatically,” Mr Bush said at a White House news conference yesterday.

But Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, which promotes diplomacy to resolve disputes, doubted “the sudden shift in Iran’s position” was in reaction to “the recent bluster and threats of war”.

It was more likely Tehran wants to eliminate any risk of a US attack – however great or small – for the remainder of the Bush administration and in the meantime improve the atmosphere between Tehran and Washington, he said. This would enable “a prospective Obama administration” to “have an easier time pursuing diplomacy once in office”, said Mr Parsi, who is also the author of Treacherous Alliance, a book on the secret dealings between Iran, Israel and the United States.

mtheodoulou@thenational.ae