G-8 ministers press Iran for response

MOSCOW – Expressing growing impatience, the Group of Eight industrialized nations on Thursday called on Iran to respond next week to a month-old offer of incentives for Iran to freeze its nuclear work. Iran replied that it had questions about the deal and couldn’t respond until August.

The G-8 foreign ministers, meeting to prepare for next month’s G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, said Iran should provide a “clear and substantive” response to the proposal by July 5. They said in a statement that they were disappointed that Iran hasn’t yet replied.

Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, is scheduled to meet July 5 with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his government was reviewing the proposal but would need more information from Solana before it could respond.

The proposal would give Iran assured access to civilian nuclear power, sales of passenger aircraft and other benefits if it freezes work on uranium enrichment. Iran says its enrichment program is only in place to produce low-enriched uranium for civilian power reactors. The United States and others suspect its real goal is to produce highly enriched uranium for weapons.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her colleagues attempted to increase pressure on Iran by announcing that countries negotiating with Tehran will meet on July 12 to take stock of the diplomatic initiative.