Iranians give cold shoulder to new entreaties

VIENNA, Austria – Iranian political and religious leaders sounded defiant Friday in the face of the accord among major world powers demanding Iran suspend its nuclear program in exchange for a package of incentives, but stopped short of saying they would reject the deal.

Much of what was said repeated past statements, and none of it addressed specifically the incentives and penalties agreed to here on Thursday by permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said international pressure “would not bear fruit” and obliquely accused Israel of being behind the effort to censure Iran, in comments to the official Iranian news agency.

None of this surprised European diplomats, who said the Iranians are masters of brinkmanship, making their diplomatic moves at the last possible minute. The diplomats said it was crucial not to jump to conclusions about Tehran’s position.

European officials have been negotiating intermittently for two years with Iran to seek a permanent halt to its uranium enrichment program. The talks broke off early this year when the Iranians restarted enrichment at their plant at Natanz.

In a major concession to its long-standing refusal to meet with Iran, the Bush administration earlier this week agreed to join European negotiating efforts. On Thursday, Russia and China signed on as well to a deal designed to give Iran a choice between engagement with the world community if it gave up its uranium enrichment-related activities and isolation if it did not.

The hope is that negotiations will now restart with Iran, but that is far from clear.

At the Friday prayer in Iran, which signals the stand of the country’s powerful religious leaders who shape certain aspects of Iranian politics, clerics slammed the U.S. but said almost nothing about the Thursday offer.

“The USA constitutes the largest danger on the international security,” said leading cleric Ahmed Khatami at the Friday prayer.

Western powers believe Iran wants the capability to build a nuclear bomb but Iran insists it only seeks to enrich uranium to fuel civilian nuclear power plants.

The package of incentives will be offered to Tehran probably early next week by a delegation of European diplomats who may be joined by representatives of other permanent Security Council members, most likely Russia and China, diplomats said Friday.

The U.S. would not be part of that delegation because it broke off diplomatic relations with Iran after 52 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran in 1979.