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Iran rejects Swiss nuclear compromise |
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Tuesday, 08 May 2007 |
TEHRAN, May 8, 2007 (AFP) - Iran on Tuesday rejected a plan proposed by Switzerland that it said envisages compromise gestures by both Tehran and world powers to bring an end to the nuclear standoff.
Top nuclear official Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said that the so-called "Swiss plan" proposed that Iran freeze its work on sensitive nuclear activities while world powers halt UN sanctions action on its nuclear programme.
"In the first stage of this plan, Iran and the 5+1 countries should stop where they are," said the deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, according to the ISNA news agency.
"We believe it is a kind of suspension to which we have given a negative response and will not accept," Rahmani Fazli said.
The second stage of the plan suggested a six-month period for confidence building during which Iran would halt expanding its uranium enrichment programme and world powers would vow not to impose new sanctions against Tehran, he said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana plans fresh talks with Iran's national security chief Ali Larijani in the next few weeks to discuss a UN demand that Tehran freeze uranium enrichment.
The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear programme to secretly develop an atomic bomb. Tehran denies the charge and insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes.
Enrichment is hugely sensitive because the process can be used to make the core of an atom bomb as well as nuclear fuel. |
