• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Iran not optimistic on EU nuclear offer -official

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 July 2005, 14:40 CDT

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's top nuclear official said onTuesday he was not optimistic the Islamic state would accept anproposal from the European Union next month concerning thelong-term future of the country's nuclear program.

"The Europeans have low capability to solve this case. I amnot optimistic their proposal will capture Iran's interest,"Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic EnergyOrganization, told the semi-official ISNA students news agency.

France, Britain and Germany share U.S. suspicions thatIran's nuclear facilities could be used to make weapons andhave been in talks to persuade Tehran to halt all uraniumenrichment activities as the only way to allay these concerns.

Iran insists its program is entirely peaceful.

Iran has agreed to freeze some nuclear work while itnegotiates a long-term arrangement with the EU three. Talks aredue to resume in August.

"Talks will reach a very sensitive stage from now on. Itwill not go smoothly," Aghazadeh said.

The next round of talks coincide with a change ofgovernment in Iran following ultra-conservative former Tehranmayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide presidential election winon June 24.

Ahmadinejad, who takes office on Aug. 4, has said Iran willcontinue its talks with the EU over the nuclear program andthat both sides must seek to gain each other's trust.

SECURITY COUNCIL

But some European diplomats have expressed concern hisgovernment will harden Iran's stance on the nuclear issue,making a deal harder to achieve.

Should Iran reject the EU trio's offer most European statesare expected to back Washington's demand that Iran be reportedto the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Some local and foreign media have reported that HassanRohani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator with the EU, hasoffered to resign following the presidential elections. Butaides close to Rohani denied he was quitting,

"These are just rumors, he hasn't resigned," HosseinMousavian, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team,told Reuters.

Another diplomatic source said Ahmadinejad may choose tochange the negotiating team when he takes office.

Aghazadeh also said publicly for the first time that Iranhad been conducting research on atomic fusion technology forseveral years.

Science's quest to produce cheap and abundant energy fromnuclear fusion as yet remains a distant prospect. Last week a30-nation consortium chose France to host the world's firstfusion reactor, a project expected to take at least 10 years.

"One of the important projects which this organization hasbeen working on in the past few years was the project ofnuclear fusion," Aghazadeh said.

"First we signed an agreement with the Russians. But thenthe Russians, under American pressure, stopped delivering theequipment to Iran. Our experts conducted research on this issueand were successful," he added. He gave no further details.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category