U.S. Offers Iran Economic Incentives
March 11, 2005 — -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced today the United States will support two important incentives that Britain, France and Germany have sought to offer Iran in exchange for continuing its suspension of a uranium enrichment program.
The United States will consider "on a case-by-case basis" the licensing of spare parts for Iran's civilian aircraft, and allow discussion of Iran's accession to the World Trade Organization to go forward at WTO headquarters in Geneva. Iran is known to have a large and aging fleet of Boeing aircraft as well as Airbus planes whose engines may contain U.S.-licensed technology. Spare parts for either would require a U.S. export license.
Sirus Naseri, a senior Iranian diplomat involved with negotiations, dismissed today's announcement, calling the incentives "too insignificant to talk about."
A spokesperson for Boeing said the company will "take whatever business steps make the most sense" with respect to Iran only after the U.S. government modifies its current restrictions barring commercial transactions.
Britain, France and Germany have been engaged in negotiations with Iran since October 2003 aimed at ending Iran's uranium-enrichment program, which Iran voluntarily suspended in November 2004. Today's announcement marks a shift in U.S. policy toward Iran and a victory for European diplomats, who have long sought to persuade Washington that it must consider incentives as a way of prolonging Iran's suspension of its enrichment activities.
According to a senior administration official, the deal took shape at a March 1 dinner in London attended by Rice; Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief; and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain.
Robert Einhorn, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, called this "a small step and far short of what the Europeans believe the U.S. must do to have any chance of getting the Iranians to give up their enrichment program."
