The US, Russia, China and three European nations announced agreement on Thursday on a package of incentives intended to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran, shelving any punitive action by the Security Council until Iran has time to respond to the proposals.
The initiative is aimed at encouraging Iran to return to a freeze of its sensitive nuclear activities, including turning off the fast-spinning centrifuge machines that produce enriched uranium.
The specifics of the proposals were not revealed on Thursday. But they are expected to be presented to Iran in coming days by a delegation headed by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief. The government in Tehran would then be given weeks -- but not months -- to respond, US and European officials said.
Britain's new foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, read a statement on behalf of the six countries, saying, "We have agreed on a set of far-reaching proposals as a basis for discussions with Iran. We believe they offer Iran the chance to reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation."
She said that the nations represented at the talks "are prepared to resume negotiations should Iran resume suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities" as required by the International Atomic Energy Agency. "And we would also suspend action in the Security Council," she added.
Beckett warned that "further steps would have to be taken in the Security Council" if Iran did not comply. But the statement carefully avoided any mention of sanctions or other specific, punitive measures, and Beckett took no questions.
The word "sanctions" was not uttered in the public dialogue on Thursday, perhaps in an effort to avoid giving Iran an obvious target for early objections. But should Iran reject the incentives, differences are likely to re-emerge among the six nations as they consider specific punishments in the Security Council.
Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted that any consideration of punitive action in the Security Council be frozen until Iran has a chance to respond to the current offer, said one senior official who, like some others, spoke on the condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules.
"The Security Council has stopped," this official said. "If we fail, we will come back to the Security Council, but the process is now stalled until we see the reaction of Iran. They asked for it to be frozen, and they got it."
A resolution is currently before the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which invokes the council's power to demand compliance of member countries and threaten punishment if they refuse.
Another senior European official expressed fears that the process could allow Iran time to "string this along for a very long time."
Pressed on whether the six nations had reached full consensus on Thursday, Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, expressed broad satisfaction.
"We are very satisfied by the results of today's meetings here in Vienna," he said. "We consider them a step forward in our quest to deny Iran a nuclear weapons capability."
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