By Bruno Waterfield - 14th May 2006
Europe’s foreign ministers meet in Brussels in a bid to come up with “bold” proposals to end an international crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Ministers will on Monday discuss a package of incentives to encourage Iran to import the uranium needed for civil nuclear power stations.
The EU is expected to offer trade perks for Iran and to expand political ties with Tehran in return for UN oversight of the country’s nuclear programme.
“It will be a generous package, a bold package that will contain issues related to nuclear, economic matters and maybe if necessary security matters,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Monday.
UN International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei has backed the EU move as “a positive thing”.
“I hope that package will be comprehensive, will be bold. I hope that package will enable Iran to come back to the negotiating table,” he said.
But the initiative has received a cool reception in Tehran and trade-offs were rejected by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“They want to offer us things they call incentives in return for renouncing our rights,” he declared.
EU failure will accelerate a looming international crisis and possible UN sanctions against Iran over Tehran's defiance of calls to halt uranium enrichment.
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