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Iran pushes France nuclear deal Iran pushes France nuclear deal
(about 4 hours later)
An Iranian official has suggested that France creates a consortium to produce nuclear fuel inside Iran as a solution to the current nuclear crisis. Iran has suggested that France monitor its nuclear programme, by setting up a nuclear fuel consortium inside Iran.
The proposal comes against a backdrop of month-long talks with Europe after Iran failed to abide by a UN Security Council deadline to stop nuclear work. The announcement was made by the deputy head of Iran's atomic energy agency. France said Iran's offers had to go through the EU's foreign policy chief.
The US says six major powers could meet again this week to discuss whether to take punitive action such as sanctions. But Javier Solana has concluded that Iran is unlikely to suspend nuclear enrichment, said a senior UK official.
Iran's president has ruled out the suspension of the nuclear programme. Key world powers have agreed to seek a new UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions, the official said.
The deputy director of Iran's atomic energy agency, Mohammad Saeedi, told French radio that a solution to the nuclear issue could be a consortium with France to enrich uranium in Iran. The official stressed that this did not prevent further negotiation with Iran to try to persuade it of the benefit of complying with UN requirements to halt their nuclear programme.
Mr Saeedi presented this as a new idea that would allow France to monitor Iranian nuclear activities.
Conflicting signalsConflicting signals
But more than a year ago Iran's president suggested foreign companies should enter into joint ventures with Iran to develop its nuclear power industry. The deputy director of Iran's atomic energy agency, Mohammad Saeedi, told French radio that a solution to the nuclear issue could be a consortium with France to enrich uranium in Iran.
This, he said, would ensure transparency. "That way France... could control in a tangible way our enrichment activities," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told France-Info radio.
And there were months of discussions with Russia about jointly producing enriched uranium for power generation in Iran. Mr Saeedi presented this as a new idea, but more than a year ago Iran's president suggested foreign companies should enter into joint ventures with Iran to develop its nuclear power industry, says the BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison.
Those discussions failed because of the issue of whether enrichment should take place inside or outside Iran. Iran has given out confusing and conflicting signals about how far it is willing to go in what many suspect may be a deliberate attempt to delay, says our correspondent.
The current stumbling block to a deal is a demand from the six major world powers that Iran suspend its nuclear work before or during negotiations. France said it was taken by surprise by the latest Iranian move.
Iran has given out confusing and conflicting signals about how far it is willing to go in what many suspect may be a deliberate attempt to delay. "There is a channel of dialogue with the Iranians" that must pass through Mr Solana, said Jean-Baptiste Mattei, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry.
Earlier there were hints that Iran might be ready to suspend its nuclear programme, but in recent days the president has again said this is out of the question, indicating a compromise is distant. "It's through this channel we await a response from the Iranians on the suspension" of uranium enrichment, as demanded by the UN Security Council, Mr Mattei told reporters.
Speaking in Helsinki, Mr Solana said the Iranian offer was "something we have to analyse in greater detail".
He described a telephone conversation with Iran's nuclear chief Ali Larijani as "cordial and constructive".
But he added: "We still have some elements that need to be agreed. We will continue talking."