Iran prefers nukes to carrots, sticks to follow

Reuters/NY Times:

Top EU diplomat Javier Solana handed Iran an offer by six major powers of trade and other incentives on Saturday to try to coax it into halting sensitive nuclear work, but Tehran again ruled out any such suspension.

"If the package (from the six powers) includes suspension it is not debatable at all," Iran's government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told reporters.

"Iran's view is clear: any precondition is unacceptable."

He was speaking shortly after Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, presented the incentives package from the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

The offer, including civilian nuclear cooperation, is a revised version of one rejected by Iran two years ago and diplomats have played down any hopes of a breakthrough in a dispute that has helped push up oil prices to record highs.

The world's fourth-largest crude producer is refusing to stop activities it says are for generating electricity but which the West suspects are aimed at making bombs.

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Seeking to step up the pressure, the United States and the 27-nation EU have threatened more sanctions if the Islamic Republic does not stop enriching uranium, which has both civilian and military uses.

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Iran signaled this response when it started shuffling funds to avoid the coming additional sanctions. It may not work for them, because the bankers can refuse to do business with banks that hold their fund making them useless. That happened to a bank North Korea was using to launder its counterfeit US currency. It is doubtful that any stick that does not include the credible use of force will effect Iran's policy. What the offer does prove is that the program is not about electricity. If it were that issue would be solved by the carrots.