Iran's top security official on Monday suggested Teheran may agree to extend its freeze on uranium enrichment but warned it could not be forced to scrap its nuclear technology for good. The EU's "Big Three" powers, Britain, France and Germany, have offered Iran a deal in which Teheran would indefinitely suspend nuclear fuel cycle activities in return for EU help with civilian nuclear technology and a resumption of trade talks. The freeze on enrichment activities -- which can be used to make bomb-grade material -- must happen before the International Atomic Energy Agency on Nov. 25 or the EU would join Washington in seeking to send Iran's case to the UN Security Council. Iranian officials on Sunday rejected the EU proposal as unbalanced, but also said they wanted further negotiations.
But in a sign Teheran may agree to the original EU offer, Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said an "indefinite" freeze did not mean the the same thing as a "permanent" halt to enrichment. "The Europeans say indefinite because Iran and Europe are supposed to hold negotiations for a long time," he told reporters after a meeting with parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. "We have always said that if Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment, to whatever extent, it will be voluntary because no country can force another to stop having peaceful and legal nuclear technology, not even for one hour," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. The United States accuses Teheran of trying to develop an atomic arsenal under the cover of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran says it only wants to generate electricity. Iran pledged last year to freeze all uranium enrichment activities, but resumed producing and assembling parts of enrichment centrifuges this year, much to the EU's annoyance.
"Oh, Gerhard! I am so annoyed!"
"Me, too, Jacques! More patè?" |
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