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EU Makes Final Nuke Offer to Iran Thursday-Diplomats |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
Reuters
 VIENNA - Officials from France, Britain and Germany will meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator in Vienna on Thursday to offer Tehran a final chance to halt uranium enrichment plans or face possible U.N. sanctions, diplomats say.
"The political directors from the EU three are meeting (Hassan) Rohani on Thursday here to formally hand over the offer," said a Western diplomat familiar with the talks between the Europeans and Iran. "I think Iran may be disappointed."
Rohani is the secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
The diplomats said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has its headquarters in Vienna, would probably not be directly involved in the meeting between Rohani and the EU diplomats.
"But the EU three will certainly inform the IAEA director-general (Mohamed ElBaradei) of the meeting," a diplomat said.
This meeting follows Friday's session of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations, where the European Union presented its plans to use a "carrots and sticks" approach with Tehran, offering incentives in exchange for a verified suspension and eventual termination of Iran's uranium enrichment activities.
Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons. Tehran says it wants to produce low-enriched uranium fuel for energy purposes, but Washington says this is part of a covert plan to produce highly-enriched fuel for atomic weapons. |
