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Dubai: Iran is expected to respond within the coming days to the Western proposal to defuse the dispute over its nuclear programme, and to avert a potential war in the region despite new European sanctions, said politicians and analysts.
"Iran is likely to respond next week or in the next 10 days, to the proposal of the 5+1," said Iranian veteran analyst Saeed Laylaz, in reference to the recent proposal by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on behalf of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
While Iranian acceptance would form a "very good start and a very significant change," a refusal, believes Laylaz, means that the situation will continue to be the same as in the past few years, but this time with increasing concern of a potential war against Iran.
Meanwhile, Laylaz strongly believes that the new Western proposal includes several significant signs.
The most significant sign is that it carries the signature of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice along with the signatures of European officials, he said.
"Nobody noticed this, and this the first of its kind since the Iranian revolution," said Laylaz in an interview with Gulf News.
Holding serious negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme, expressing a readiness to give it advanced nuclear technology, returning the issue from the UN to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are among the significant elements in the Western package.
Most importantly, the signal in Solana's speech that Iran may not completely stop its uranium enrichment programme but rather stop it at "this current level" is something that "has not been said before," and constitutes a new development, noted the Iranian analyst.
Tehran, in the meanwhile, has presented the West with a package. According to Iranian politicians and analysts it seeks guarantees that their "regime will not be destroyed and that Iran will not be attacked by the US from its neighbours, namely Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as releasing Iran's assets frozen in the US since the 1979 revolution, and lifting economic sanctions.
Both sides see the other's proposals include "positive" positions. However, "there has been no discussion yet on the content of both proposals," said Iranian writer and analyst Sabah Zanghani in an interview with Gulf News.
"Both sides pressurise the other to get more concessions", he added.
The two proposals came a few days before the European Union tightened the screws on Iran on Monday and imposed new sanctions against its national bank, Bank Melli, Iran's oldest bank, which has nearly 3,000 branches across Iran and nearly 16 branches abroad.
The sanctions came after some press reports spoke of new pledges for Iran to play a "regional role", and take part in regional security arrangements, to be discussed during a proposed conference according to the pan-Arab, Saudi-owned newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat.
This has raised much debate. While Zanghani describes such talk as "predictions" adding that "talk over an Iranian role [in the region] has became a reality that exceeds proposals presented from here or there", Mosayeb Al Nuaimi, editor of the Al Wefaq newspaper in Tehran said "this is rhetoric talk.... Who is Europe to give Iran a role? What kind of a role? political, regional? .... This is general talk and this is devious Western style."
A Saudi media source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Al Sharq Al Awsat is "creating confusion" stressing that any war in the region will send the area to "hell".
Tarik Al Hameed, Editor-in-Chief of Al Sharq Al Awsat told Gulf News that the paper is "100 per cent sure of its sources", adding that "Iran is already interfering in regional affairs without any incentives."
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