Split emerges in West's front against Iran

The EU draft offer of a package of incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment has caused a split in the West's previously united position on Iran since Washington has serious reservations about the European plan, EU diplomats said.

The plan will be discussed in London on Wednesday by senior officials from France, Britain and Germany (the EU3), the United States, Russia and China, an EU diplomat familiar with the EU3's draft told Reuters.

"We agreed to offer Iran a nuclear power plant and possibly more, along with support for an international (nuclear) fuel consortium to guarantee fuel for civilian nuclear activity," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Russia and China are expected to support the plan but Washington is concerned about the idea of supporting a regional security framework in the Middle East and exempting EU firms from US penalties if they do business with Iran.

"We're still looking at it and we've not yet decided our position," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told Reuters.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said public discussion of the EU proposal's contents was "premature" and indicated that there was no guarantee Iran would be offered any reactors.

"The possible supply of a light-water reactor for Iran is still under consideration," he said.

EU diplomats said Washington was uncomfortable with the idea of offering Iran any reactors and was loathe to ask Congress to exempt EU firms from US penalties for nuclear deals with Iran.

The EU and United States believe Iran is secretly developing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian energy programme and want it to halt its enrichment programme, which could produce atom bomb fuel. Iran refuses, saying its atomic programme is solely aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has a legal right to pursue this project. We will try to address all the concerns other countries have about the Iranian nuclear file," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Kuwait.

As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Iran reserves the right to enrich uranium and pursue the development of nuclear energy.

The EU proposal also includes warnings about possible sanctions if, as the EU and Washington expect, Iran rejects the offer and continues enriching uranium at its Natanz plant.

Possible sanctions include visa bans for high-ranking Iranian officials and their families, freezing assets of Iranian individuals and companies and trade sanctions.

The draft also offers Iran a kind of security guarantee, saying the EU would work toward "recognition of territorial integrity" of Middle Eastern countries, an EU diplomat said.

US hardliners are not happy with the idea of any security pledges for Iran as long it continues to threaten Israel with annihilation and support "terrorism" in the region, he added.

Speaking ahead of a 5-day tour of the Gulf states, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticised Iran's neighbours in the Gulf and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for not putting enough pressure on the Islamic republic to halt its nuclear fuel programme.

"Given their close proximity, a clear condemnation (by the GCC) of the nuclear ambitions of Iran's government would be a very important signal that this is not a conflict between 'the West' and Iran," Steinmeier told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

"The Iran conflict will be an important issue in the tour of the Gulf states," he said.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, and some German politicians think Iran should be allowed to conduct limited enrichment for research and is expected to urge Washington to soften its position, EU diplomats said.

Washington opposes the idea of letting Iran enrich at all.

ElBaradei heads to Washington early next week and will meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley to discuss Iran ahead of the London meeting of the six world powers, Vienna diplomats said.