Global Security Newswire
Iran's supreme religious leader dismissed a May call by Iranian "pragmatists" to temporarily suspend the country's uranium enrichment program in a bid to settle a long-standing nuclear dispute with the United States and European countries, Western diplomats told Reuters.
Washington and its allies suspect that Iran's enrichment program is aimed at generating nuclear-weapon material, but Tehran has maintained that the effort would only produce nuclear power plant fuel. In March, U.S. President Barack Obama invited Iran to join new negotiations aimed at halting the Middle Eastern state's enrichment program in return for economic and political benefits.
Ahead of Iran's June 12 presidential election, Iranian insiders proposed agreeing to an enrichment suspension of "limited scope and duration." One Western diplomat linked the recommendation to supporters of Mohsen Rezai, a conservative presidential candidate serving as secretary of the nation's powerful Expediency Council.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ultimately rejected the entreaty, though, and hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory in the nation's disputed presidential poll. Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said he was unaware of the proposal. (Read more...)
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