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West offers Iran 'refreshed' deal

By Nicholas Kralev
May 3, 2008

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says six nations are offering Iran more incentives to suspend enriching uranium.

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LONDON — Six major powers offered Iran a "refreshed" package of political, security and economic incentives yesterday in another attempt to persuade Tehran to suspend work on a sensitive nuclear program.

Agreement on the proposal, first reported by The Washington Times six weeks ago when it came under consideration, came at a meeting in London of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterparts from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

"Our meeting today has been dedicated towards taking the offer that we made in June 2006, reviewing it and updating it, and I'm glad to say that we've got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

In a brief statement to reporters, Mr. Miliband said that details of the package will not be made public, as was the case with the offer two years ago, which was never accepted by the Iranians. It included help with developing a civilian nuclear program.

"We very much hope that they will recognize the seriousness and the sincerity with which we've approached this issue, and that they will respond in a timely manner to the suggestions that we are making," he said.

U.S. officials, however, said they were skeptical that Tehran would accept the offer. Its condition is that Iran suspend enriching uranium, which the West says could be used to make nuclear weapons, although Tehran insists it will be used only for civilian purposes.

In the 2006 proposal, the six countries offered to provide Iran with nuclear energy, including a light-water reactor, partial ownership of a Russian enrichment facility and a five-year "buffer stock" of enriched uranium stored under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

They also said that, if Iran suspended enrichment, they would support its accession to the World Trade Organization and help modernize Iran's telecommunications infrastructure. They also proposed "a new conference to promote dialogue and cooperation on regional security issues." The United States offered to sell Iran spare parts for civilian aircraft and promised to begin reversing nearly three decades of unilateral sanctions and participate in negotiations with Tehran.

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