Foreign ministers agree on incentives, penalties for Iran

Washington, June 2 (UNI) Foreign ministers of Germany and five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have reached an agreement on a package of incentives for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, or face penalties if it refuses.

''There are two paths ahead. We urge Iran to take the positive path and to consider seriously our substantive proposals, which would bring significant benefits to Iran,'' British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett announced at the conclusion of the ministerial meeting in Vienna yesterday.

She did not elaborate on the terms but said it was a far-reaching set of proposals that offers Iran a chance to have a negotiated settlement of the crisis over its nuclear programme, based on cooperation.

The ''carrots and sticks'' package offers Iran a set of financial and technology incentives if it ended uranium enrichment and returned to nuclear negotiations with Britain, France and Germany. If it refuses, there would be UN Security Council action against the Islamic nation that might include economic sanctions.

The package is also aimed at urging Iran to resume negotiations that collapsed after Tehran abandoned a two-year-old moratorium on enrichment activities in January.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States, the European nations, Russia and China are all in agreement ''that there have to be two plans for Iran -- one, negotiations and incentives; the other, penalties and isolation.'' Rice said the negotiations could include the establishment of an Iranian civil nuclear programme that the international community would find acceptable.

''If Iran accepts the offer and suspends its enrichment activities, all the better, then we can get to the table, and we believe that there is a civil nuclear programme that would meet Iran's needs but that would give confidence to the international community that they're not trying to build a nuclear weapon,'' she said.

Rice expressed concern that at its present pace, Iran could reach production-scale enrichment capability by the end of this year. She said the international community should work to prevent this from happening.

Commenting on the new development, President Bush said at the end of a White House cabinet meeting yesterday that it remains to be seen if Iran's seemingly negative response to the proposal is its last word on the subject.

Bush said, ''My reaction is that the choice is theirs and we'll see whether or not that is the firm position of their government. And if that's what they decide to do, then the next step, of course, will be for our coalition partners to go to the United Nations Security Council.

And the choice is up to the Iranians. And they've already said, by the way, that they're willing to suspend (enrichment).

And this gives them a second chance to make their words mean something.'' UNI XC PDS VP0632