The Iranian government rejected Europe's proposal for ending the deeply divisive standoff over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme on Saturday, calling it "unacceptable" and not up to Iran's "minimum expectations."
"The European proposals are unacceptable and against the provisions of the Paris agreement. The proposals do not meet Iran's minimum expectations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on state radio.
He said the government would send its official rejection to the Europeans within days. The Paris Agreement was reached between Iran and the three European countries, negotiating on behalf of the 25-member European Union.
Under the deal, signed in November in Paris, Iran agreed to continue suspension of uranium enrichment and all related activities incuding uranium conversion until negotiations proceed for a political settlement.
Iran has accused Europeans of wasting time, saying that continued suspension depended on the progress in talks and the European failure to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium under Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and failure to make progress in talks does not prevent Iran from reopening the Isfahan uranium conversion facility.
European diplomats had on Friday sought to entice Iran into a binding commitment not to build atomic arms by offering to provide fuel and other long-term support to help Iranians generate electricity with nuclear energy. The proposal did not mention the previous agreement that allowed Iran to enrich uranium.
More from rediff