U.S. Backs European Proposal on Iran Nukes

George Gedda, Washington Post:

The Bush administration expressed support Friday for a proposal by European negotiators designed to ensure that Iran's nuclear activities will not lead to its development of nuclear weapons.

The United States encourages Iran "to consider positively" the offer by Britain, France and Germany, said State Department acting spokesman Tom Casey. READ MORE

The U.S. has been strongly supporting the ongoing European negotiating effort, hoping that it will achieve one of the administration's top international priorities _ keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran's Islamic fundamentalist leadership.

Under the proposal, Iran would have to commit to not diverting nuclear fuel to a nuclear weapons program. In exchange, it would get long-term help for its civilian nuclear energy efforts, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

A senior State Department official said the United States has been seeking such an Iranian commitment as part of the overall proposal.

A second senior official said the proposal was drawn up entirely by the Europeans without U.S. input. He added that the Bush administration disagrees with some points in the proposal, but he refused to discuss them.

Both officials asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Casey, the spokesman, said Iran should refrain from taking steps that would not be in keeping with a November 2003 agreement between Iran and the Europeans. One such step would be the violation of International Atomic Energy Agency measures designed to prevent Tehran from restarting uranium conversion at a plant at Isfahan.

The spokesman said the United States has been consulting closely with the three European Union countries as they try to strike a deal with Iran, but would provide no further details.

"We support the EU3 efforts and the proposal they have put forward to find a diplomatic solution to this problem," Casey said, using the acronym for the European Union.

Later, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the Europeans briefed U.S. officials on the proposal and provided them with copies.

"It's an important moment in this process," Burns told reporters in a teleconference call. If Iran agrees to accept the proposal as a basis for negotiations, the Europeans would be ready to initiate talks at the end of August, he said.

The United States has said twice over the past week that any effort by Iran to resume uranium processing activities would prompt a U.S. effort to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

If the administration took that step, it most likely would seek U.N. sanctions against Iran. But the administration probably would face strong resistance to any such effort.

Iran has temporarily suspended uranium enrichment activities but has threatened in recent days to resume them.

The long-running negotiations with Iran over the country's nuclear future are reaching a turning point as Tehran's former mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is poised to assume Iran's presidency.

He is to be inaugurated before parliament on Saturday, his hard-line policies apparently in line with those of a council of conservative mullahs who hold final authority on national security issues.

Ahmadinejad will take office amid U.S. demands that Iran respond to allegations that he was a leader of the student movement that took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.