World powers hold out hope for new Iran talks

TEHRAN: World powers on Thursday held out hope for new talks with Iran on its controversial nuclear programme, a day after Tehran offered an updated package of proposals aimed at resolving the impasse.

China, which along with the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Germany, received a copy of the package from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday, called on all parties to step up efforts to resolve the standoff.

“We believe that under the current circumstances, relevant parties should step up diplomatic efforts and resume talks as soon as possible to seek a comprehensive, long-term and proper settlement of the issue,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told journalists in Beijing.

The six powers are involved in efforts to convince Tehran to halt sensitive nuclear work which they suspect is to make an atomic bomb. Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful purposes and that it is entitled to pursue it, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Russia, too, said it was evaluating the latest Iranian proposals.

“It contains a lot of arguments which require expert evaluations,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

“After studying this document and exchanging opinions with our partners in the six-party talks, there will be found an understanding as to how to evaluate the document that we’ve received,” Nesterenko added.

World powers have given Tehran a late September deadline to begin negotiations with them concerning the atomic programme or face more sanctions. Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions.

Britain, whose relations with Iran have deteriorated since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on June 12, said it was “committed to a meaningful dialogue” to address concerns over Tehran’s atomic drive.

“Our offer of talks on the nuclear issue (made in April 2009) still stands, and we hope that Iran will respond to this as soon as possible,” a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said in London.

Iran has accused Britain of having a role in the post-election unrest in Tehran which officials say killed about 36 people.

According to the Iranian media on Thursday, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) again insisted at the agency’s meeting in Vienna that Tehran will continue enriching uranium, which lies at the centre of the nuclear controversy.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh told IAEA governors that it is Iran’s policy “not to have suspension (of uranium enrichment) and to fully go ahead with our undeniable right of using peaceful nuclear technology,” the conservative Jomhuri Eslami reported.

Talks with Tehran gained significance after US President Barack Obama, soon after his January inauguration, made diplomatic overtures with Iran to resolve several outstanding issues, including the nuclear crisis.

Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since a year after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran which toppled the US-backed shah. Mottaki told representatives of the six world powers on Wednesday that Tehran was “ready to discuss political, security, economic, cultural and international issues with the other parties, on the basis of respect for the sovereignty and rights of nations, and without pressure and threats.”

The same day, the US envoy to the IAEA, Glyn Davies, said Iran may have enough nuclear material already to put together an atomic bomb. But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who last week alleged the Iranian threat had been “hyped”, said there was no need to panic.

“We have serious concerns but we’re not in a state of panic, because we haven’t seen diversion of nuclear material and we haven’t seen components of nuclear weapons,” said ElBaradei who stands down in November.

source: www.thenews.com.pk