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World Powers Make Updated Nuclear Offer to Iran

February 26, 2013

by VOA News

World powers gave Iran an updated offer Tuesday during talks on Iran's controversial nuclear program, and hope for "more detailed feedback" from Iranian representatives when the talks resume on Wednesday.

Diplomats characterized the talks in Kazakhstan as off to a "useful" start but did not make public details of the proposals.

Michael Mann, the spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters late Tuesday that world powers will await Iran's detailed response.

“We want to come out of this meeting with something; with a sign from the Iranians that they are prepared to move,” he said.

Mann refused to characterize the talks as a "last chance" for Iran but he told VOA's Persian Service there needs to be some progress.

The so-called P5+1 group of nations -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany -- were expected to offer to ease some sanctions against Iran if its agrees to halt some of its nuclear activity.

But Mann says for that to happen, Iran needs to address concerns about its uranium enrichment activities.

"We have seen reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said. "We have seen great concern about the building of new centrifuges and the level of enrichment that is going on."

The United States and other world powers suspect Iran is using its nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its program has peaceful aims.

​​U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is urging Iran to move towards a diplomatic solution. Kerry, who met Tuesday with his German counterpart in Berlin, "expressed hope" that "Iran itself will make its choice to move down the path of a diplomatic solution."

Kerry said previously in London that "an Iran having a nuclear weapon, in that region, and given all that has happened, is simply unacceptable.” He said the United States is prepared to work in “good faith” and “mutual respect” to avoid what he called the "consequences" of a failed deal at the talks.

The International Atomic Energy Agency recently said that Iran has begun installing a new generation of centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment plant, a move U.S. officials have deemed "provocative."

The meetings in Kazakhstan are the first in eight months.

Over the past few years, the United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on Iran in an effort to pressure it to curb its enrichment program. Several other countries, including the United States, have imposed their own additional measures.