Iran needs time to consider a European package designed to persuade it to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme in line with a UN request, Hossein Mousavian, foreign policy chief of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said yesterday.
Mr Mousavian said a "high-level" meeting would be needed to reach any conclusion over the European package, which reportedly includes the supply of enriched uranium and subsequent removal of spent rods, the transfer of nuclear technology including a light water reactor, and a trade agreement.
Speaking to Iranian state television from Vienna, where Iranian and European officials met to discuss the package, he stressed that the Europeans would need to put their proposals in writing, reflecting frustration among Iranian officials at the Europeans' delay in communicating their package and at their suggestion it was an ultimatum.
Some EU officials described the meeting as "positive" and said the two sides had agreed to meet again at the same level next week. A more high profile meeting involving foreign ministers would be unlikely before the US presidential election because of US sensibilities and would also depend on clear signals from the Iranians that they would suspend enrichment.
Mr Mousavian, a prominent member of Iran's negotiating team in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, is considered a pragmatist who has worked for a compromise with Britain, Germany and France (the EU 3) as a means to head off the US, which wants punitive action over what it argues is Iran's secret weapons programme.
Most political factions in Iran strongly oppose any agreement giving up the right to enrich uranium under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, of which Iran, the EU 3 and the US are all signatories. President Mohammad Khatami this week said that Iran expected its "national dignity" to be respected and was wary of dependence on outside powers. "If Iran wants to produce 7,000 or 10,000 megawatts of electricity, it cannot look to others to provide its nuclear fuel," he said.
"The slightest political tension might persuade them to cut off the supply and damage billions of dollars of investment."
In Tehran, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential former president, said yesterday that while "negotiation and diplomacy" could still resolve the problem, Iran would not abandon the "rights of our country, people and revolution".
But tactical divisions have surfaced in Iran since the IAEA last month passed a resolution urging Tehran to suspend its nuclear programme or risk being referred to the UN Security Council at its meeting of November 25. The Resalat newspaper, which generally backs the pragmatists, yesterday urged Iran to put forward a "confidence-building package" accepting western investment in its nuclear industry and backing a suspension of enrichment-activities "until the IAEA, the European countries and Iran reach consensus".
Additional reporting by Dan Dombey
