WORLD / Middle East
Iran ready for serious talks
(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-23 08:23
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Tuesday it was ready for "serious negotiations"
on its nuclear program, offering a new formula to resolve a crisis with
the West. A semiofficial news agency said the government was unwilling to
abandon uranium enrichment - the key US demand.
Iranian technicians are seen at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facilities
(UCF), 420 kms south of Tehran, in 2005. Iran called for talks as it
delivered its response to a deal aimed at ending a long-running nuclear
standoff but it did not say whether it had met the demands of the
international community. [AFP\File]
Iran delivered its written response to a package of incentives offered by
the United States and five other world powers to persuade Iran to roll
back on its nuclear program and punishments if it does not. The world
powers, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany,
have given Iran until Aug. 31 to accept the package.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said Washington
will "study the Iranian response carefully" but was prepared to move
forward with sanctions against Tehran if it was not positive. The White
House held off commenting until it had studied the text. The European
Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the document was
"extensive" and required "a detailed and careful analysis."
Iranian officials offered no details of the response, but it appeared
geared at enticing those countries into further negotiations by offering
a broad set of proposals vague enough to hold out hope of progress in
resolving the standoff.
If the Iranians leave the door open to halting enrichment as talks
progress, that would drive a wedge in the Security Council between the
Americans, British and French on one side and the Russians and Chinese on
the other. Last month, Russia said the Council was in no rush to pressure
Iran, striking a more conciliatory tone than the United States.
Tuesday's announcement was the latest development in the yearlong
standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran says it wants to master the
technology to generate nuclear power. But critics say Iran is interested
in uranium enrichment because it can also be used to make the fissile
core of nuclear weapons.
The current drama is playing out in the wake of fears that the ability of
the pro-Iranian Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon to withstand 34 days of
Israeli bombardment has emboldened hard-liners in Tehran to risk a
showdown with the Americans, who are bogged down in neighboring Iraq.
There has also been speculation in the West that Iran encouraged
Hezbollah to provoke the Israelis to distract attention from its nuclear
ambitions.
Iran has pursued a confrontational stance on the nuclear issue since the
election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year. The hard-line
president has used the nuclear issue to encourage a sense of national
pride among Iranians by standing up to the United States and other
Western countries.
On Tuesday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, hand-delivered
his government's response to ambassadors of Britain, China, Russia,
France, Germany and Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests - nine
days before a Security Council deadline for Iran to halt uranium
enrichment or face economic and political sanctions.
Larijani refused to disclose whether the response included an offer to
suspend uranium enrichment. But the semiofficial Fars news agency
reported that Iran rejected calls to suspend "nuclear activities" or
uranium enrichment and "instead has offered a new formula to resolve the
issues through dialogue."
The state-run television quoted Larijani as telling the diplomats Iran
"is prepared as of Aug. 23rd (Wednesday) to enter serious negotiations"
with the countries that proposed the incentives package.
The Irna official news agency reported that "Larijani said Iran's answer
has logically, fairly and constructively addressed demands of the
proposed package, recommending the P5+1 group to return to the
negotiation table immediately despite the false atmosphere created
against Iran that it was buying time."
Last month, the Security Council set an Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to halt
uranium enrichment or face economic and political sanctions. Iran called
the resolution "illegal" but had said it was willing to offer a
"multifaceted response" to an incentives package that the six powers
offered in June.
Iranian officials familiar with Larijani's response said Tehran offered a
"new formula" to resolve the dispute. The officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
"Iran has provided a comprehensive response to everything said in the
Western package. In addition, Iran, in its formal response, has asked
some questions to be answered," one official said without providing more
details.
But the Iranians have been signaling they are not prepared to abandon
uranium enrichment as a precondition to talks. Last month, a senior
Iranian lawmaker said the country's parliament was preparing to debate
withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the U.N. Security
Council adopts a resolution to force Tehran to suspend enrichment.
On Monday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the
Islamic Republic "has made its own decision and in the nuclear case, God
willing, with patience and power, will continue its path." Khamenei
accused the United States of putting pressure on Iran despite Tehran's
assertions that its nuclear program was peaceful.
Iran's former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who is now a top
adviser to Khamenei, said Iran's national interests, not the West's
demands, should be the basis for Iran's decision.
"What we have achieved in nuclear technology is worth more than the
pressures against us at the international stage," the semiofficial
Iranian Students News Agency quoted Velayati as saying Tuesday.
In February, Iran for the first time produced its first batch of
low-enriched uranium, using a cascade of 164 centrifuges.
In the last few weeks, Iran prevented U.N. nuclear agency inspectors from
inspecting an underground site meant to shelter its uranium enrichment
program from attack, diplomats said Monday.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is
to report by Sept. 11 to the agency's board on Iran's compliance with the
U.N. deadline to freeze enrichment and other aspects of Tehran's
cooperation with U.N. inspectors.
The Western incentives package has not been made public but some details
have leaked. They include an offer to lift a ban on sales of Boeing
passenger aircraft, providing Iran with some nuclear technology to build
reactors for civilian purposes and guaranteeing a supply of nuclear fuel.
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