Not enough

Western powers are unsatisfied with the response of Iran to an incentives package aimed to avert direct confrontation over its nuclear programme, writes Rasha Saad

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US officials criticised as inadequate Iran's response to an incentives package aimed at defusing a dispute over its nuclear programme. According to the officials, a one-page letter Iran presented to European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in Brussels is not a definitive reply to the offer from major world powers to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing in exchange for economic and other benefits.

In the letter, Iran says it promises to respond to the offer after receiving some clarifications about the proposals, a EU source said Tuesday. As Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, Solana was said to be still discussing contents of the letter with the six world powers involved in talks on Iran's nuclear programme.

World powers agreed earlier this week to seek new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme after they accused Tehran of failing to meet a weekend deadline to respond to an offer they claim was intended to defuse the dispute. They decided that Iran's lack of response to an incentives package offer left them no option other than to pursue new punitive measures.

"We are disappointed that we have not yet received a response from Iran," State Department Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Tuesday. "We agreed in the absence of a clear, positive response from Iran [that] we have no choice but to pursue further measures against Iran."

In line with the escalation in the war of words between Iran and the world powers involved in the dispute, Iran announced on Monday -- two days after the deadline expired -- that it has tested a new weapon capable of sinking ships within a radius of 200 miles.

Tehran, which said it does not recognise the deadline world powers set in the first place, reiterated threats to close a strategic waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if attacked. Up to 40 per cent of world oil passes through the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow passage along Iran's southern coast. Iran has warned it could shut down tanker traffic if attacked -- a move likely to send oil prices skyrocketing.

The UN Security Council has already adopted three sanctions resolutions against Iran. The United States, the European Union, as well as individual EU members have imposed their own financial sanctions against Iranian entities and individuals. On 19 July, the six powers primarily involved set a two-week deadline for Iran to either accept or reject the package of economic incentives tabled in return for halting its uranium enrichment.

On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said diplomacy was the only way out of the standoff and insisted he was serious about negotiations. Those comments came a day after he asserted his country would not give up its "nuclear rights", signalling that it would refuse demands to stop enriching uranium or at least not to expand its enrichment work.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said in Tehran on Sunday that Damascus was not mediating or bringing a message from the West to Iran over its disputed nuclear plans, but could play a role to help defuse the crisis. Al-Assad made his comments during a two-day trip to Iran that followed a visit to Paris in July. The timing of the visit triggered speculations that Al-Assad told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he would use his influence in Tehran to help resolve the standoff.

Syria's official state news agency, SANA, reported on Al-Assad's visit as having affirmed "identical views" between the two countries on major regional and international issues. The agency hailed the two nations' rejection of "foreign dictates" and stressed the need for a "timetable for a withdrawal of foreign forces from [Iraq]".

Al-Assad's visit was also intended to focus on economic ties between Tehran and Damascus that have resulted in over a dozen projects in Syria, worth $896 million, SANA said, adding that both governments are "seriously seeking to increase the size of joint investments to more than $3 billion over the next years."

The pan-Arab London-based Asharq Al-Awsat quoted an Iranian source as saying: "President Al-Assad did not come to mediate between us and the Europeans. We no longer need a Syrian or non-Syrian mediator because the communication channels between us are open and direct." The source confirmed, however, that the Syrian president visited Tehran to convey his impressions of a private conversation that took place between him and Sarkozy during his recent visit to Paris.

Sarkozy, the source said, included a warning that failure by Iran to comply with the international community's demand to suspend uranium enrichment -- albeit for a limited period not exceeding six months and not less than six weeks -- will close all doors to a settlement. In this case, France and its European partners will not be able to prevent Israel from delivering a devastating strike against Iranian nuclear and military installations.

The Iranian source, who earlier accompanied Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki on his visits to Ankara and Damascus, also said the Syrian president came with some answers to questions that Motaki had raised in Damascus on what Tehran regards as a relative shift in the Syrian stance towards regional issues of strategic importance to Tehran. The source explained that foremost among these is Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq. This comes at a time when Iran believes that Israel is seeking to neutralise Damascus prior to carrying out its military strike against Iran, the source added.