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Iran Says It Will Respond To Nuclear Proposal In August

June 21, 2006 -- Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said today that his country will reply by August 22 to an international package of incentives aimed at persuading Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear activities.

Brussels and Washington appeared to stiffen their common stance on the Iranian nuclear issue after a senior-level meeting in Vienna, just as rumors of the latest Iranian position were emerging.

EU and U.S. officials have hinted that they wanted Tehran to reply by the end of June, ahead of a G8 meeting of industrialized countries on June 28-30.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in Vienna for the meeting with EU leaders, responded coolly to reports that Tehran would take two months to present its response.

Bush said: "It seems like an awful long time for a reasonable answer, for a reasonable proposal -- a long time for an answer," Bush said. "We look forward to working with our partners. We just got word of this [Iranian] statement as we walked in here, but it shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal."

Bush added that "we'll come to the table when they verifiably suspend. Period."

Austrian Chancellor and meeting host Wolfgang Schuessel, whose country currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, appeared to signal frustration with Iranian brinksmanship.

"This [incentives package] is the carrot," Schuessel said simply, "Take it."

The package was agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) plus Germany.

It was reportedly delivered to Iranian officials by EU security and foreign policy chief Javier Solana on June 6, and Solana said he had "constructive" telephone talks with Iranian officials on June 14.

(compiled from agency reports)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org