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The European Union and Washington are split over an EU proposal to offer Iran a generous package of incentives including nuclear reactors and security pledges if it stops enriching uranium, diplomats said on Saturday.
The EU draft offer of a package of incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment has caused a split in the West's previously united position on Iran since Washington has serious reservations about the European plan, EU diplomats said.
The plan will be discussed in London on Wednesday by senior officials from the "EU3," the United States, Russia and China, an EU diplomat familiar with the EU3's preliminary draft proposal told Reuters.
"We agreed to offer Iran a nuclear power plant and possibly more along with support for an international (nuclear) fuel consortium to guarantee fuel for civilian nuclear activity," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Russia and China are expected to support the plan but Washington is concerned about the idea of supporting a regional security framework in the Middle East and exempting EU firms from U.S. penalties if they do business with Iran.
"We're still looking at it and we've not yet decided our position," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told Reuters, adding he would deliver the U.S. response at the London meeting.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said public discussion of the EU proposal's contents was "premature" and indicated that there was no guarantee Iran would be offered any reactors.
"The possible supply of a light-water reactor for Iran is still under consideration," he said.
EU diplomats said Washington was uncomfortable with the idea of offering Iran any reactors at this point and was loathe to ask Congress to exempt EU firms from U.S. penalties for doing business with Iran in the nuclear field.
The EU and United States believe Iran is secretly developing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian energy programme and want it to halt its enrichment programme, which could produce atom bomb fuel. Iran refuses, saying its atomic programme is solely aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity.
POSSIBLE SANCTIONS
The EU proposal also includes warnings about possible sanctions if, as the EU and Washington expect, Iran rejected the offer and continued enriching uranium at its Natanz plant.
Possible sanctions include visa bans for high-ranking Iranian officials and their families, freezing assets of Iranian individuals and companies and trade sanctions.
The draft also offers Iran a kind of security guarantee, saying the EU would work toward "recognition of territorial integrity" of Middle Eastern countries, an EU diplomat said.
U.S. hardliners are not happy with the idea of any security pledges for Iran as long it continues to threaten Israel with annihilation and support "terrorism" in the region, he added.
A further indication of a split in the U.S.-EU drive has to do with Iran's enrichment research and development programme. Germany believes that it is pointless to expect Iran to give up all enrichment research work, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing unnamed government officials.
Washington opposes the idea of permitting Iran to do any enrichment work at all, even on a small scale, because it would give Tehran the know-how to produce nuclear bomb fuel.
The head of the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, also believes it would be better to allow Iran to conduct limited enrichment for research and is expected to urge Washington to soften its position, diplomats said.
ElBaradei heads to Washington early next week and will meet with senior U.S. officials to discuss Iran ahead of the London meeting of the six world powers, Vienna diplomats said.
The EU draft offer of a package of incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment has caused a split in the West's previously united position on Iran since Washington has serious reservations about the European plan, EU diplomats said.
The plan will be discussed in London on Wednesday by senior officials from the "EU3," the United States, Russia and China, an EU diplomat familiar with the EU3's preliminary draft proposal told Reuters.
"We agreed to offer Iran a nuclear power plant and possibly more along with support for an international (nuclear) fuel consortium to guarantee fuel for civilian nuclear activity," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Russia and China are expected to support the plan but Washington is concerned about the idea of supporting a regional security framework in the Middle East and exempting EU firms from U.S. penalties if they do business with Iran.
"We're still looking at it and we've not yet decided our position," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told Reuters, adding he would deliver the U.S. response at the London meeting.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said public discussion of the EU proposal's contents was "premature" and indicated that there was no guarantee Iran would be offered any reactors.
"The possible supply of a light-water reactor for Iran is still under consideration," he said.
EU diplomats said Washington was uncomfortable with the idea of offering Iran any reactors at this point and was loathe to ask Congress to exempt EU firms from U.S. penalties for doing business with Iran in the nuclear field.
The EU and United States believe Iran is secretly developing atomic weapons under cover of a civilian energy programme and want it to halt its enrichment programme, which could produce atom bomb fuel. Iran refuses, saying its atomic programme is solely aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity.
POSSIBLE SANCTIONS
The EU proposal also includes warnings about possible sanctions if, as the EU and Washington expect, Iran rejected the offer and continued enriching uranium at its Natanz plant.
Possible sanctions include visa bans for high-ranking Iranian officials and their families, freezing assets of Iranian individuals and companies and trade sanctions.
The draft also offers Iran a kind of security guarantee, saying the EU would work toward "recognition of territorial integrity" of Middle Eastern countries, an EU diplomat said.
U.S. hardliners are not happy with the idea of any security pledges for Iran as long it continues to threaten Israel with annihilation and support "terrorism" in the region, he added.
A further indication of a split in the U.S.-EU drive has to do with Iran's enrichment research and development programme. Germany believes that it is pointless to expect Iran to give up all enrichment research work, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing unnamed government officials.
Washington opposes the idea of permitting Iran to do any enrichment work at all, even on a small scale, because it would give Tehran the know-how to produce nuclear bomb fuel.
The head of the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, also believes it would be better to allow Iran to conduct limited enrichment for research and is expected to urge Washington to soften its position, diplomats said.
ElBaradei heads to Washington early next week and will meet with senior U.S. officials to discuss Iran ahead of the London meeting of the six world powers, Vienna diplomats said.
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