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Iran Rejects Incentives To Halt Uranium Enrichment

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The Associated Press

Published: June 15, 2008

PARIS - Iran rejected a six-nation offer of incentives to stop enriching uranium on Saturday, prompting President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to jointly warn Tehran against proceeding toward a nuclear bomb.

Tehran might be playing for time, saying that it is in an ongoing dialogue with the West while continuing to enrich uranium to secure the amounts necessary to build a nuclear bomb, critics warn.

The new package was handed to the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Mottaki said that Iran's response would depend on how the West responded to Iran's May 13 proposal calling for international talks on all issues and improved international inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities.

But Iran's proposal does not mention the key Western demand - that Iran stop enriching uranium.

Even before Solana's meetings, however, Iran gave its pre-emptive judgment of the deal that holds out the promise of economic, technological, educational and political rewards: dead on arrival, assuming the offer is conditioned on Iran halting its uranium enrichment, which it is.

Bush said the issue dominated his discussions last week with leaders as he travels through Europe.

With his time in office ticking down and it widely presumed that Iran could have enough fissile material for a weapon within a few years, Bush has been hoping to inject new urgency into the extremely slow-moving diplomatic process.

Bush did not repeat his strongest rhetoric on Tehran, which he has repeatedly threatened with new sanctions - or even the last-resort possibility of a military strike if it remains defiant.

The furthest the president went Saturday was to promise the implementation of existing sanctions - three rounds of mild penalties through the auspices of the United Nations.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

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