Iran Offers to Put Brakes on Atomic Fuel Cycle

Guy Dinmore in Washington and Raphael Minder, The Financial Times:

Iran has responded to combined pressure from the US and Europe by offering to halt development of most of its nuclear fuel cycle facilities while retaining the ability to enrich small amounts of uranium, diplomats said on Friday. read more

Iran's offer, communicated to the Bush administration, was seen as a first response to the united approach involving a mix of economic incentives and threats that the US and Europe agreed on following President George W. Bush's summit meetings last month.

Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, confirmed the shift in US policy on Friday, announcing that the US would lift its objections to Iran's application to join the World Trade Organisation. The US would also consider licensing spare parts for Iranian commercial aircraft.

France, Germany and the UK the European Union trio leading negotiations with Iran declared they would support US efforts to refer Iran to the UN Security Council if it ended its voluntary freeze of its uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing activities.

Diplomats and analysts in Washington doubted that the US and EU3 would accept Iran's proposal that it retain, under international inspection, a small number of centrifuges to enrich uranium. Under the temporary agreement reached with the EU in November, Iran was allowed to keep running a dozen centrifuges out of the tens of thousands it was developing.

In their public statements, US officials have demanded the complete and permanent end to Iran's nuclear fuel cycle activities. Diplomats noted with interest this demand was not specified in the State Department's official announcement yesterday. ...