Iran comes forward with concessionary proposal

CAIRO, Egypt -- The U.N. deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment came and went, and nobody blinked.

Throughout the spiraling conflict -- slathered in tough talk on all sides -- Iran had said it would not bow to international pressure, apparently banking on the deep split in the Security Council over the "or else" portion of the United Nations' demand.

Russia and China did not budge from their opposition to U.N. sanctions as punishment, leaving the United States, Britain and France hamstrung and facing a possible Security Council veto by the Kremlin and Beijing.

Iran, however, appeared to have understood it may have pushed the international community as hard as it could for the time being.

On Saturday, the Islamic republic issued a concessionary proposal that might offer a way out of the dangerous stalemate, which President Bush has said caused the United States to leave the military option on the table.

"If the issue is returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency, we will be ready to allow intrusive inspections," Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammed Saeedi, told state-run television.

His words appeared to anticipate an international loss of patience voiced Saturday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov -- a steadfast opponent of sanctions.

Lavrov told his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki by telephone that Iran must halt uranium enrichment and cooperate with the IAEA.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Lavrov demanded that Iran suspend research and development on enrichment and "provide full-format cooperation" with the IAEA to "clear up the IAEA's remaining questions."

In February, Iran barred intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities by the IAEA, the U.N. watchdog for compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, after it was referred to the Security Council over its nuclear activities.

Several Western countries -- the United States, Britain and France, in particular -- suspect the program is aimed at producing nuclear warheads.

By offering a return of so-called snap inspections, Iran appeared to be giving ground in an attempt to convince the IAEA -- and the world community -- that it was telling the truth when it said it was enriching uranium only as fuel for reactors to generate electricity.

"What is up for negotiation is to remove concerns of probably few countries in negotiations," Saeedi told Iranian television in a direct reference to Western allegations.

The White House was dismissive of the Iranian offer.

"Saturday's statement does not change our position that the Iranian government must give up its nuclear ambitions, nor does it affect our decision to move forward to the United Nations Security Council," spokesman Blaine Rethmeier said Saturday.

Ahmad Bakhshayesh, an Iranian political commentator and university professor, suggested the government might be trying to stall progress toward a Security Council showdown.

"If the case is returned to the agency it would take more time for the world to get united against Iran because the governors have to review the case from technical and legal aspects as well as political ones," he said.

Throughout the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program, experts such as Saeedi and those on the diplomatic front lines have carried messages less threatening than those issued by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- a variation on the "good cop, bad cop" routine.

Iran's U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif joined Saeedi on Saturday in what appeared to be a concerted effort to find a way to ease the crisis, echoing the language issued in Tehran.

"There are a multitude of possibilities for reaching a solution, if we start from the basic assumption that Iran has the right (to nuclear power) ... and Iran should not develop nuclear weapons," Zarif told the British Broadcasting Corp.

"I believe if you start from these two assumptions and not draw arbitrary red lines then we will be able to reach a mutually acceptable negotiated solution."

Those words presented a much different tone than an Ahmadinejad statement Friday: "The Iranian nation won't give a damn about such useless (U.N. sanctions) resolutions."

In conjunction with the Friday deadline to halt enrichment, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed in a report that Iran had successfully produced enriched uranium and had defied the Security Council.

But Bush, perhaps foreseeing Iranian eagerness to keep its case from reaching a full-scale sanctions debate, responded with extreme care Friday.

He said the world was concerned about Iran's "desire to have not only a nuclear weapon but the capacity to make a nuclear weapon" -- one degree less accusatory than past statements.

Bush added he was not discouraged, saying: "I think the diplomatic options are just beginning."

Saeedi, however, did not back away from Iran's drive to enrich uranium and said his country was pushing forward with technological developments, including the installation of two more 164-centrifuge cascades at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, in central Iran.

He said Iranian scientists also were studying more advanced P-2 centrifuges, designed to speed up enrichment, than those on which Ahmadinejad announced research earlier this month.

"What we are conducting research on is not only P-2 but even more advanced machines," Saeedi said, adding that Iran had not moved beyond using the P-1 centrifuges.

Suspicions about Iran's intentions have grown since it was discovered in 2002 that the Tehran regime had for two decades secretly operated large-scale nuclear activities that could be used in weapons making.