By IPS Correspondents
TEHRAN, Aug 23 2006 (IPS)

Iran’s response to the nuclear incentives package offered by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) plus Germany (P5+1) is a sign that there could be tough bargaining ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline for this country to stop uranium enrichment or face sanctions.

Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief negotiator, who handed over the response to the envoys of Britain, United States, France, Russia, China and Germany, on Tuesday, complained of impatience shown in taking the issue to the UNSC, even before Iran could respond to the package of incentives, the Iranian Students News Agency reported. He was also reported saying that Iran had, on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s request, tried to study the package in a positive light.

While the contents of the response letter have not been disclosed, Iranian officials said it offered great possibilities for future negotiations with the big powers and opened up a ‘constructive’ path.

Larijani had, on Tuesday, asked the P5+1 to return to the negotiating table quickly to reach an understanding with Iran on the package, including the nuclear issue and long-term economic and technical cooperation, leading to better security in the region.

Some inkling of Iran’s toughening stance was reflected in an editorial in the conservative ‘Resalat’ daily, on Wednesday, which called on Iran’s negotiators to not allow the West to ‘’undo with teeth a knot which can be unravelled by hands”, as a popular Iranian saying goes.

“The ambiguities of the incentive package reveal that its initiators have been seeking to deprive Iran of its right to peaceful nuclear technology, and what they have offered as incentives is worth no more than ‘nothing’,” wrote Hossein Shariatmadari, chief editor of the hardline ‘Keyhan’newspaper.

On Monday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set the tone by declaring that Tehran would not give up its nuclear programme, deadline or not.

There was no criticism of the nuclear policy in the press but then the country’s Supreme National Security Council had, from the beginning of the nuclear standoff with the West, warned media not to run anything that could be damaging to the country’s national security.

Little store is being set by the report that Mohammad Al- Baradei, chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will be making on Iran’s compliance with the NPT. Iran’s consistent stand has been that its nuclear programme is peaceful and that, as signatory to the NPT, it has a right to enrich uranium for generating electricity.

“Iran is almost certain the IAEA will report not being able to verify Iran’s compliance with the NPT. And in the light of statements made before, by Larijani and others, it seems very unlikely Iran has consented to suspension (of enrichment and reprocessing),” said a political analyst in Tehran, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“The resolution says if Iran doesn’t stop all enrichment activities before Aug. 31, sanctions are going to be imposed but as long as there are not too serious threats and the country can sell its petroleum at high prices, Iran will not have great concerns about the sanction at their initial stages. If oil prices drop down or intensive economic sanctions are imposed, including importing gasoline for example, the country can face bigger problems. Iran’s greatest fear is U.S. military action and that sounds very far-fetched considering the present situation in the region,” he added.

According to the political analyst, the ”main difference between Iran and the West is that Iran says they must first talk to establish what Iran can gain while the West says whatever Iran wants to achieve will be made possible by accepting suspension of uranium enrichment first”.

“The West has moved forward from its position and has acknowledged Iran’s right to have nuclear technology in its package of incentives. This is an achievement for Iran. Now it wants concrete guarantees to know what it will lose in return for what it gains, so they don’t want to rule out talks altogether,” the analyst told IPS.

“So far the West has tried to offer a package of incentives to Iran but from now on it seems both parties will act more on the basis of the role that disincentives are going to play. Eventually, one can gain a better understanding of the direction Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West is moving in September, at the UNSC,” the analyst said.

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