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Two senior diplomats who were briefed on the Iranian response said in an interview that world powers would probably reject it.
The UN Security Council has set a deadline of next Thursday for Iran to freeze enrichment — a possible pathway to nuclear arms — and the six nations offering to talk to Iran say such a step must precede the start of any discussions.
But the diplomats said the 25-page document does not directly suggest an enrichment moratorium, even after negotiations start.
Instead, it includes only a vague reference to a willingness to discuss all aspects of the country’s nuclear program, said the diplomats who spoke from two European capitals and asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the confidential proposal.
They said the reaction among the six powers — France, Germany, Britain, Russia, the United States, and China — was one of disappointment and even anger that Tehran would not consider a suspension of uranium enrichment as a precondition for any new talks.
A day after the US administration issued a guarded assessment of Iran’s long-awaited response, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said yesterday it was unsatisfactory, and was missing a “decisive sentence” on whether it would halt uranium enrichment.
“We are still examining it, but from everything that I hear we cannot be satisfied,” Merkel said in an interview with N24 television. “What we expected is not set down here: `We are suspending our uranium enrichment, we are coming to the negotiating table and we will then talk about the chances and possibilities for Iran.’ “
The comments by Merkel, a close ally of President Bush, reflect the increasing frustration of the United States and its key European allies who have been forced to wait for several weeks for an Iranian response.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush spoke yesterday with Merkel and Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy about Iran, but Perino would not say whether the leaders were of the same mind about what should be done next.
The US State Department has said that Iran considered its proposal to be a serious one and promised to review it, as did the five other nations that offered political and economic rewards to Tehran July 1 if it agreed to a freeze enrichment.
But the diplomats suggested that despite assurances of a serious review, the capitals involved found little of substance in the document.
One of them said that much of the Iranian response, delivered Tuesday, confines itself to “a history of Iran’s nuclear program from Tehran’s point of view,” including arguments that enrichment was its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
In it, Iran also asks for more information on various elements of the July 1 offer, including hints that Tehran’s cooperation could lead to bolstered security for the country and the possibility that some or all US sanctions might be lifted if there is agreement, said one of the diplomats.
One of the diplomats said in an interview that the lack of Iranian flexibility on enrichment would likely leave even Russia and China no choice but to ultimately endorse UN sanctions against Iran.
Moscow and Beijing previously have steadily put the brakes on US-backed efforts to punish Tehran quickly, but have stipulated that Iran must freeze enrichment.
Iran maintains it has offered “positive and clear signals” to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program.
Although neither Iran nor its six interlocutors have released the text of Tehran’s counteroffer, two well-informed Iranian academics said it included about 100 questions, including a request for a timetable for the West to implement its incentives package.
Abbas Maleki, director of the International Institute For Caspian Studies in Tehran, and Kevah Afrasiabi, an author and political scientist, made the statement yesterday in a report distributed by Agence Global.
The two also said that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, had declared Iran’s willingness to use its influence in Lebanon for an exchange of prisoners held by Hezbollah and Israel, “reminding the world of Iran’s stabilizing role.”

Reporter: Michael Rowland
TONY EASTLEY: Iran has until next Thursday to halt its nuclear program, or face a range of financial penalties.But US intelligence agencies are under fire for not knowing enough about Iran’s intentions.A Congressional committee claims the CIA and other bodies haven’t provided enough direct evidence that Iran intends building a nuclear weapon, a key assertion by those wanting to impose sanctions on the Tehran regime.At the same time the Bush administration is saying it does have evidence that Iran is directly supporting Shi’ite militias in Iraq.Washington Correspondent, Michael Rowland reports.MICHAEL ROWLAND: America’s intelligence agencies are still licking their wounds after the public flogging they received for insisting Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, an assertion used to justify for the invasion of Iraq.Now America’s spies are under pressure for not doing their homework on that other alleged threat to national security – Iran.The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has released a report that savages the CIA and other agencies for what it says are the major gaps in America’s knowledge of Iran’s nuclear program.Committee members, including Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, say the intelligence agencies must supply more evidence that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons and that the regime is a significant threat to the US.MIKE ROGERS: Given where Iran is as a world player, and not a good world player, we need better information as soon as you can possibly get it. So, it was more of an encouragement for the intelligence community that, listen, and there’s three sections of intelligence gathering – what you know, what you don’t know, and what we don’t know we don’t know – and we’ve asked them to step it up on the last two portions of that.MICHAEL ROWLAND: Fellow Republican Congressman, Peter Hoekstra, says Congress wants to avoid another “slam dunk”, the phrase used by former CIA Director George Tenet about the intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.The report notes Iran could be following Saddam Hussein’s lead by engaging in a campaign of deception to exaggerate progress on its nuclear program.And with the Tehran regime showing no sign of stopping the program, Congressman Mike Rogers fears Iran could have a nuclear weapon within five years, all the more reason, he believes, to press ahead with sanctions.MIKE ROGERS: This is a problem that is international in scope and we all better come together, we can slow down that five years with international sanctions. Right now the United States has those sanctions on not enough. We need to have an international focus on sanctions.MICHAEL ROWLAND: As it struggles to maintain international support for sanctions, the Bush administration is pointing the finger even more directly at Iran over its ties with the Shi’ite militias wreaking havoc in Iraq.Previously the US has said Iran was offering indirect support to the militias, now Senior Pentagon Official, Brigadier General Michael Barbero, says the Tehran regime is actively fuelling the sectarian violence that’s tearing the country apart.MICHAEL BARBERO: I think it’s irrefutable that Iran is responsible for training, funding, and equipping some of these Shia extremist groups, and also providing advanced IED (improvised explosive device) technology.MICHAEL ROWLAND: It’s all part of the rapidly intensifying US campaign to paint Iran as the latest regional bogey-man that needs to be tamed.
In Washington this is Michael Rowland reporting for AM.