Saudi offers deal to end Iran nuclear stand-off

Saudi Arabia today revealed details of an ambitious offer to Tehran, aimed at defusing the growing crisis over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

Speaking at the end of the state visit to London by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, his Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that every effort must be made to avert what many fear could turn into a military confrontation between the United States and Iran.

Washington and Tehran again attacked each other over the issue today. Nicholas Burns, the US under-secretary of political affairs, said that America was pushing to impose new sanctions on Iran. In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened retaliation against Europe if it followed America’s lead.

At the heart of the problem is Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Iran insists that enriched uranium will be used purely as fuel for its nuclear reactor at Buhsher. America and other Western nations suspect that the Iranians want to produce highly enriched uranium for use as a warhead in an atomic bomb. More...