US weighs joining Europe in offering incentives to Iran
WASHINGTON -- In a potential strategy shift, the Bush administration is considering joining Europe in offering Iran economic incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear fuel program, the White House said yesterday.
The administration has been strongly opposed to any rewards for Tehran's cooperation, but President Bush is rethinking the issue after his trip last week to Europe, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
In Vienna yesterday, the chief of a UN nuclear watchdog agency chided Iran for delays in divulging key information about its nuclear program, saying the onus is on Tehran to overcome a ''confidence deficit" caused by past coverups.
Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at a meeting of the group that Iran's past failures to provide requested data have delayed a determination on whether its nuclear energy program meets UN guidelines.
European leaders who met with Bush last week urged him to join in offering economic incentives to Iran, including possible membership in the World Trade Organization. They contend that a united front would be more effective than a continuing US-Europe split over how to persuade Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions.
''There was a lot of discussion about the way forward," McClellan said. ''The president is thinking through some of the ideas that were discussed. We want to look at how we can be the most helpful in moving the process forward."
A British official said yesterday that Britain, France, and Germany have discussed supplying Iran with commercial aircraft and aircraft spare parts as incentives, in addition to membership in the WTO.
The issue of Iran came up repeatedly during Bush's five-day trip to Europe, including at separate meetings between the president and Jacques Chirac, the French president, Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The tactic of offering incentives to Tehran now, as well as possible sanctions or military action later if necessary, had been flatly rejected by the administration ahead of the European trip.
Bush in the past has said that Tehran should not be rewarded for violating terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which bars it from enriching spent nuclear fuel to make it suitable for nuclear weapons. However, as the trip progressed, Bush seemed to exhibit more flexibility on the topic of incentives.
Russia yesterday sought to dismiss concerns that an Iranian nuclear reactor it built and will supply with fuel could be used to develop weapons. The two countries signed an accord Sunday that is key to bringing Iran's first reactor on line.
The deal was struck despite American objections, although US officials said they could live with the pact because it was designed to eliminate the possibility of the Iranians misusing the fuel for weapons.
More worrisome for the United States and European nations are Iran's plans to enrich its own uranium. While Iran says it wants the technology only to generate electricity, the process can also produce weapons-grade material for warheads.
Iran has suspended work on enrichment pending negotiations with France, Germany, and Britain, but has repeatedly said the freeze is of short duration, despite European hopes that Tehran will commit to fully scrapping its program.
A two-year investigation by the UN nuclear agency established that Iran ran a clandestine nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, for many years.
In a new revelation of Iran's past covert activities, diplomats said over the weekend that as early as 1987, Iran had received a written offer from a nuclear black market network to set up the basics of an enrichment program. They said the Iranians had turned over the list to the agency only recently.
