February 20, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday brushed off Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's offer
to close down nuclear fuel production facilities if the United States and its allies do the same.
"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
Ahmadinejad had told a rally broadcast on Iranian state television that, "If they say that we should close down our fuel production facilities to resume talks, we say fine, but those who enter talks with us should also close down their nuclear fuel production facilities."
The United States, Britain, France and Germany have been pressuring Iran to give up enrichment activities
that they believe are geared toward developing a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.
Snow told reporters the United States was awaiting a report on Wednesday by the International Atomic
Energy Agency, which is expected to tell the U.N. Security Council that Tehran has defied a 60-day
deadline to suspend enrichment.
"But the fact is, we understand that Iran wants to have civilian nuclear power and we certainly have no
problem with that. But we do have a problem with an Iran that has the ability to develop nuclear
weapons," Snow said.?
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