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U.S. – IRAN – NUCLEAR
Washington, 3 July (IranVNC)—The United States said yesterday that Iran needs to follow through on positive words with positive actions after Iran’s foreign minister yesterday said that he saw “a new trend” in nuclear negotiations with the six major powers.
“While these are positive words, we have not seen a history of their following through with any positive words,” said U.S. State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack.
Attending a U.N. Economic and Social Council Conference in New York yesterday, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told reporters, “a new trend is underway and it started with the package delivered by Iran,” the official IRNA news agency reports. Mottaki was referring to an Iranian counterproposal to the incentives offered by UN Security Council members and Germany to persuade Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Iran has repeatedly rejected enrichment suspension, saying it has a right to enrich uranium as part of a civilian nuclear power program.
But the U.S. says Iran can pursue such a program without enriching uranium – which could be used to build a nuclear weapon.
“We have no objection to working out arrangements for a civilian nuclear program in Iran. The problem is the fuel cycle,” McCormack said yesterday.
But he added that he hoped Iran would give “a positive response to the [P5+1] proposals before then.”
Mottaki’s comments follow similar statements by Iranian officials earlier this week, signaling Iran’s willingness to negotiate UN incentives with P5+1 representatives.
Over 200 members of the Majlis issued a statement this week urging negotiations on condition that the six powers do not cross Iran’s “red line” - enrichment suspension.
In an interview earlier this week with the conservative daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami, Iran’s former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati also said Iran should welcome negotiations with the international community.
But speaking to state-run television today, Velayati clarified his statements, saying: “In my interview, I talked about negotiations and not accepting the proposed package,” AFP reports.
Also today, Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator expressed optimism about negotiations over the P5+1 offer and Tehran’s counterproposal.
"Iran believes that by emphasizing the commonalities of both packages one can create a suitable political atmosphere for a new round of constructive cooperation with creativity," AFP quotes Jalili as saying in a phone conversation with Japan’s foreign minister.
Speaking to reporters at the G-8 summit in Japan today, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the world should persuade Iran to resolve nuclear worries through “positive stimuli,” reports AFP. He added, "If we are holding negotiations with Iran in various formats, then we should not take actions that make the Iranian leadership nervous and that lead to imposition of additional sanctions."
His comments follow a warning by President Bush, yesterday, that Iran could face further economic isolation if it continued to enrich uranium.
Sources: Agence France-Presse, Islamic Republic News Agency
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