Iran told the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, last weekend that it is prepared to discuss suspending its uranium enrichment programme, a French foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed on Friday.
Solana met Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Vienna on Saturday and Sunday. An EU diplomat told the media after the meeting that Larijani offered a two-month suspension of the enrichment programme.
Suspension of enrichment-related activities is a precondition set by France, Britain, Germany, Russia, the United States and China for talks with Tehran on a package of economic and other incentives in exchange for Iran scrapping the programme.
”Iran … has accepted to talk about the question of suspension. That for us is a positive development,” spokesperson Jean-Baptiste Mattei told a regular news briefing.
Iran has so far ignored an August 31 United Nations Security Council deadline to suspend its enrichment programme, which Tehran says will only be used for civilian purposes, not to make atomic weapons as many Western countries suspect. — Reuters