CAIRO — Iran’s foreign minister warned the West on Saturday that it had one month to accept Iran’s counterproposal to a United Nation’s brokered deal aimed at slowing its nuclear program, or else Iran would begin further enriching its nuclear fuel stockpile on its own.
The comments by the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, were broadcast on state television and presented as an “ultimatum” to the West just two days after Iran missed a deadline set by the United States and its allies to accept a deal that had been brokered in October in Geneva.
If the deadline is not met, Mr. Mottaki said that Iran will enrich its stockpile of low enriched uranium to 20 percent, though it was unclear if it had the technical ability to accomplish the task. At the 20 percent level, Iran could, in theory, make an extremely crude nuclear weapon. The bigger threat would be that Iran’s enrichment could quickly accelerate from there to the much higher grade of fuel typically used in modern nuclear warheads.
Analysts on Saturday said Mr. Mottaki’s harsh tone might represent an effort by Iran’s leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to push a confrontation with the West to divert public attention from political and social troubles at home. The nuclear program has widespread support in Iran as a symbol of national pride.
Mr. Mottaki did not say exactly the terms of Iran’s counter offer, but he has said in the past that Iran would accept a simultaneous uranium swap either on its own territory or in Turkey. Those terms had already been rejected by the West, because they would not delay Iran’s ability to produce a weapon, if it chose to do so.
Under the tentative deal with the West, Iran would ship much of its low-enriched uranium out of the country where it would be further enriched, but turned into a form that would be difficult to use for weapons. One important part of the deal, however, is that Iran would be without much of its nuclear fuel for a time, giving the West about a year to try to negotiate a more permanent solution on Iran’s program.
Iran has said its nuclear program is for energy generation, but the United States and many other countries doubt that.
Tehran has already made it clear that it would not abide by the earlier tentative agreement with the West. The Obama administration has responded by indicating that it would seek to impose harsh financial sanctions on Iran, perhaps targeting specific government officials or institutions to avoid imposing hardship on the general public. It is not clear whether China and Russia, which have resisted sanctions in the past, would go along.
Iran’s defiant tone coincides with a political crisis that has smoldered since the contested presidential election in June. At least eight people were killed, and hundreds arrested, during protests in cities around the nation last Sunday.
“I am sure that, in light of the recent events much more than in the past, the Revolutionary Guards and Ahmadinejad would love the new heightened tension with the U.S. and the West,” said a Iranian expert in Washington who asked not to be identified because he still does work in Iran.
He and other experts said that harsh sanctions over the nuclear program might actually be welcomed by some of Iran’s leaders as a devise to help restore national unity. But they added that given the repressive response to the protests and political opposition, it was not at all clear that such a tactic would work.
Iranian officials continued to move aggressively against those who participated in the protests. The semiofficial ILNA news agency reported that seven people arrested last Sunday would be put on trial beginning Tuesday on charges of “desecrating the values of the Islamic Revolution.”
The newspaper Etemad also reported that more allies of Mehdi Karroubi, the cleric and opposition leader, have been arrested. Ali Hekmat, chief editor of the reformist newspaper Khordad, was arrested along with his daughter Mahsa Hekmat, who writes for Etemad. Mohammad-Reza Zahedi, editor of the reformist newspaper Arya, has also been arrested, as has Bahareh Hedayat, a top member of a reformist student organization.
But as officials have seen time and again since June, the arrests and threats have failed to bring about obedience. In Tehran, students from the Amir Kabir University announced that they would not take part in classes or exams until the release of four classmates detained during street protests last Sunday.
“I expect the regime to try to further intimidate the people,” said Abbas Milani, a sharp critic of the government of Iran who is director of Iranian studies at Stanford University. “If the past is any measure, they will also try to divert attention by creating another international crisis — a new radical gesture of confrontation or even conciliation.”
