The United States on Friday set a weekend deadline for Tehran to answer an international offer to freeze its nuclear works and warned of new sanctions if it rejects the package. However, its European Union partners stopped short of insisting on a strict deadline and said a reply within a few days would suffice.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Thursday that there was no deadline and that his country had already replied.
The US State Department had been vague about the deadline but narrowed it down on Friday. "We want and we expect a response this weekend," the State Department's acting spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos was quoted as saying by AFP. "They were given two weeks. The two weeks is up this weekend."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had given Iran two weeks to come up with a "serious" reply after an international meeting in Geneva on July 19. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino warned: "Negative consequences await if they don't have a positive response to our very generous incentives package, and that would possibly come in the form of sanctions."
Perino also said it was difficult to discern Iranian intentions, calling them "a little bit unpredictable" as she spoke to reporters in Kennebunkport, Maine. "The Iranians sent mixed messages this week and it's very hard to tell what the bottom line is," Perino stated.
According to Perino, the United States will coordinate any action with its partners in the P5-plus-1, or the permanent UN Security Council members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany.
In Brussels, an EU diplomat said the European Union is "in no rush" to have a response "in the next 24 hours," adding: "There's no real limit. "We hope to have a clear answer either today or tomorrow. But if it comes Monday what difference does it make," the diplomat added.
