BERLIN—Germany added European weight to U.S. displeasure with Iran's reply to proposals by world powers in a nuclear standoff, saying on Thursday Tehran's insistence on enriching uranium hindered a negotiated solution. Two Iranian academics, one of whom has had close ties to the government, listed questions they said Iran had posed about what it saw as vagueness in an offer from six big powers of trade and technology incentives to stop nuclear fuel work.
They said Iran's response was moderate in tone and the West should engage it rather than rush to sanctions after an Aug. 31 deadline given Iran by the U.N. Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment activity.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said there was still time for Iran to comply with the deadline.
"We obviously encourage Iran to make the right choice. We are seeking a diplomatic solution and trying to make diplomacy work," Gallegos told reporters.
"If Iran doesn't comply, the resolution makes very clear that the U.N. Security Council will then adopt appropriate measures under Article 41, Chapter 7 (of the U.N. charter) providing for sanctions," he added.
In a bid to expose Iranian bad faith, opposition exiles said Tehran was building advanced centrifuge enrichment machines that could greatly speed up its output of nuclear fuel.
The exile group, the France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has reported accurately on secret Iranian nuclear activity before. Tehran has denied its claims.
In a television interview, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Iran's answer to the incentives package 2 1/2 months after it was presented was unsatisfactory.
"From everything I hear, we cannot be satisfied with it. What we expected is not stated there, namely: 'We will suspend our uranium enrichment and come to the negotiating table'," she told Germany's N24 television.
"The decisive sentence is missing and this needs to be addressed."
Germany's stance was significant as it is seen as the Western power least keen to resort to sanctions. Germany is in the sextet of powers that offered the package, along with the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
The Security Council passed a legally binding resolution on July 31 telling Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme within 30 days or risk punitive sanctions.
Mistrust
Iran, with the world's second largest oil and gas reserves, says it is enriching uranium as an alternative energy source it will need in the future. The West suspects Iran, which calls for Israel's destruction, really wants to make atomic bombs.
Iranian academics Abbas Maleki and Kaveh Afrasiabi said the 21-page response asks for a timeline to implement the incentives and specifics on possible security arrangements for the Islamic Republic, which fears U.S. attack to impose "regime change".
"Iran also seeks clarity on the status of (existing) U.S. sanctions that prohibit offers of nuclear and technology assistance to Iran -- is the U.S. willing to lift some if not all of those sanctions?" Maleki and Afrasiabi said.
They urged the major powers not to dismiss Iran's reply.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying the reply was aimed at "removing all the concerns of the other party and, at the same time, preserving Iran's right".
Analysts say Iran's complex and nuanced answer was probably meant to drive a wedge between Security Council members Russia and China, major trade partners with Tehran, and the United States, Britain and France, which have mooted tough sanctions.
All five have a veto on the foremost world security body.
The exiled NCRI said Iran had built at least 15 advanced P-2 centrifuges and would have hundreds more ready next year. It was not immediately possible to verify the NCRI account.
Iran enriched uranium at its pilot nuclear fuel plant in April for the first time, using a network of 164 older, less sophisticated P-1 centrifuges, which spin at supersonic speeds to heighten the fissile element in uranium ore.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also announced then that Iran was researching P-2s, which can purify uranium for use as power plant fuel or atomic bombs 2-3 times faster than the P-1 model.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been probing the origin and extent of secret nuclear activity in Iran since 2003.
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