Europeans have asked the United States to consider selling new commercial planes to Iran as part of a proposed package of inducements and penalties aimed at resolving the nuclear crisis with Tehran. The Europeans have also proposed a regional security dialogue that some hope could eventually draw Washington and Tehran, adversaries for more than 25 years, into direct talks.
The package was formally presented to the United States, Russia and China shortly after it was agreed on by Britain, France, Germany and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. The US State Department did not respond to a request for an official comment.
But one US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity: "I have not seen anything that is a show stopper" in the package. When the United States first signed on to a European initiative in early 2005 aimed at persuading Iran to abandon nuclear weapons-related activities, it agreed to consider selling aircraft spare parts as an inducement to Tehran.
Earlier this year, the Bush administration quietly approved a spare parts order from Tehran related to the crash of an Iranian aircraft, congressional sources said. But Iran, under sweeping US sanctions since the 1979 Islamic revolution, has also asked for planes to modernise its aging fleet.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1643367.htm
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