EU offers nuclear know-how sweetener to Iran
By Honor Mahony
The EU has offered to share its most advanced civilian nuclear technology with Iran in return for Tehran agreeing to stop uranium enrichment.
"We could help [Iran] with the best and most sophisticated technology," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels on Monday (15 May).
Join EUobserver today
Get the EU news that really matters
Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Already a member?
"You will find Europe can help [Iran] out with a major positive project which will go beyond the projects presented in August."
Last August the EU offered a package to Tehran including incentives such as WTO membership if it suspended its nuclear activities but Iran rejected the offer outright.
Stressing that if Tehran's real aim was to produce energy, he said Iran would be provided with the "best and most sophisticated technology" for civilian nuclear use.
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the EU package may be finished "in the course of this week" adding that he hoped the Iranian government would show some "reason."
The EU's offer comes despite Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dismissive statement on Sunday saying "they want to offer us things they call incentives in return for [us] renouncing our rights."
Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes but has come under increasing pressure to halt it.
The EU continues to offer sweeteners while maintaining the threat of an UN security resolution in the background, something which Russia and China are reluctant to endorse.
Speaking on behalf of the EU, Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said the EU is "committed to a diplomatic solution."
"The intent is not to push Iran into further isolation," she added.
Annan \"encouraged\"
Speaking in Seoul, UN secretary general Kofi Annan called for urgent action to end the stand-off on nuclear issues with both Iran and North Korea.
"The international community has to take very urgent steps to deal with these issues before we have a cascade of proliferation of nuclear weapons," he said according to news reports.
"I am encouraged by the intensified diplomatic efforts to resolve this issue peacefully and seek a negotiated settlement," he added.