Iran gives 'positive' response to nuclear incentive proposal
Europeans are analyzing a letter from the Iranian foreign minister responding to calls for ending enrichment.
TEHRAN — Iran delivered a "constructive" preliminary response Friday to a package of incentives meant to persuade it to curtail parts of its nuclear program, European and Iranian officials said.
Iran's ambassador to Belgium delivered a letter signed by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to the office of European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels late Friday. Western diplomats declined to disclose details of either the letter or a phone conversation Solana had earlier in the day with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.
However, both sides described Iran's response as positive.
"The content of the letter is going to be read and analyzed before we respond to the Iranians," said a European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "More will be known in the coming days."
Iranian media reports said the two sides agreed to resume negotiations by the end of the Iranian month of Tir, which falls on July 21. But no European official could confirm such a timeline.
"The conversation was constructive," Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for Solana, said in an e-mail. "All the noises are positive."
Iran faces the prospect of a fourth round of United Nations Security Council sanctions if it refuses to stop enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for a power plant or, if highly concentrated, explosive material for a nuclear bomb.
The Iranian government insists that its intentions are peaceful, but the West alleges otherwise. Backed by the United States and other world powers, Solana last month delivered a package of proposed economic and political incentives in an effort to persuade Tehran to stop enrichment.
Iran has offered its own package as a basis for compromise. But it does not mention the possibility of halting enrichment.
Iran is also considering a proposal from Solana under which it would stop adding new uranium-processing centrifuges and the West would refrain from pushing for sanctions during a six-week period before negotiations.
Fears of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States or Israel have contributed to rising oil prices, which have reached record highs.
In an interview published Friday, the chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said his country would consider an attack on its nuclear installations the beginning of a larger confrontation.
