TEHRAN, July 11 (UPI) -- Iran said the West's latest offer of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment carried "ambiguities" and Tehran's answer depended on clarifying them.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asafi told reporters Tuesday "the ball is in the European court at present regarding Iran's nuclear program... In order to speed up Iran's response to the offer the ambiguities should be clarified quickly, otherwise the answer will be slow."
"Since we received the proposal we have made progress in studying the incentives but the further we moved, more ambiguities came up," Asafi said, the Iranian News Agency, IRNA, reported.
He said vagueness was not limited to a single area of the offer but was found in political and economic issues and the way Iran would benefit from peaceful nuclear technology.
Asafi refused to identify the ambiguities, saying "we cannot talk about that to the press but we have to wait for the outcome of negotiations."
Rejecting deadlines for responding to the offer, Asafi said "Iran's answer will not be given suddenly. The answers will be given during the negotiations in a gradual manner."
Asafi made the comment as Iran's chief negotiator Ali Larijani held talks in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who had carried the offer to Tehran more than a month ago.
He said Iran's initial welcoming of the proposal "was due to opting for dialogue instead of confrontation."
The United States, which accuses Tehran of secretly working to build nuclear weapons, has demanded a clear Iranian response before next weekend's Group of Eight summit of industrialized nations in Russia or face possible U.N. Security Council action.
Iran has said it will reply in August to a package of technological, economic and political incentives, and an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman suggested its full answer would only emerge later during detailed negotiations on the offer.
