Iran tries to evade sanctions

last updated 8 January 2015

Tehran

Iran this week offered to temporarily suspend its enrichment of uranium for two months, to allow for further negotiations over its nuclear program. Last week, Iran ignored a U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium, saying it had a right to nuclear technology. But now that the Security Council is preparing to meet to discuss sanctions, Iran is offering a compromise: a temporary suspension after the talks begin. The U.S. representative to the U.N. nuclear agency, Gregory Schulte, said he would “like very much to hear” that Iran had stopped enriching uranium, but would not open negotiations until that actually happened. “In the meantime,” he said, “the intention is to move forward with the sanctions package.”