Iran Nuclear Watch: France Should Lead Uranium Enrichment for Iran?

Update: France Rejects Iranian Nuclear Proposal

AFP: France rejects Iranian nuclear proposal

France has rejected a proposal from Iran to set up a consortium to produce enriched uranium on Iranian soil as a way out of the international impasse over Tehran’s suspect nuclear programme.

“There is a channel of dialogue with the Iranians” that must pass through EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry said Tuesday.

“It’s through this channel we await a response from the Iranians on the suspension” of uranium enrichment, as demanded by the UN Security Council, spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters.

He said the Iranian proposal, made on French radio earlier Tuesday by the deputy director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad Saeedi, was “unexpected”.

If the Iranians agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, Mattei said, “there could be place for negotiations where each side can make whatever proposals it wishes.”

Well, maybe they have……..

This file photo made available Tuesday Oct. 3, 2006 by the nuclear manufacturer state-controlled Areva shows the uranium enriching plant of PierrelatTe, in central France. A top Iranian nuclear official proposed Tuesday Oct. 3, 2006 that France create a consortium to enrich Iran’s uranium, in a bid to satisfy the international community’s demands for outside oversight of Tehran’s nuclear program.

AFP: Iran offers French nuclear role amid sanctions threat

Iran has suggested France should lead a consortium to produce enriched uranium on Iranian soil, in a new attempt to ward off the threat of sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been leading talks aimed at persuading Iran to suspend the sensitive nuclear activity, described such French monitoring as “interesting” Tuesday but in need of further examination.

The proposal comes after a new warning from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Iran would automatically be hauled before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if it does not suspend enrichment.

“The best solution to dispel the worries about Iran’s nuclear activities is not to demand a suspension” of enrichment, the deputy head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, told AFP.

“We have an idea that technically and legally is the best solution.

“It is that France creates a consortium with Eurodif and Areva to carry out enrichment in Iran and thus they can closely monitor our nuclear programme,” he added, referring to France’s enrichment specialist and its parent company.

More Iranian STALLING.

YET another proposal to discuss and negotiate. Old and PATHETIC these proposals/initiatives are.

Refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council and get on with it…….