Solana asks Iran to suspend enrichment
Published: Saturday, June 14, 2008
18:12GMT—2:12PM/EST
SOLANA – IRAN – NUCLEAR - Uranium Enrichment
Washington, 14 June (IranvNC)—In a rare trip to Tehran, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana today offered Iran an incentives package aimed at resolving the dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
"We continue to ask for suspension, suspension during the time of negotiations and we will (then) see the outcome of negotiations," Solana said today at a news conference held in Tehran at the residence of the German ambassador to Iran.
Solana said the offer, agreed to by the six major powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, offers Iran help in developing civilian nuclear energy.
“We are offering a proposal which we would like to be the starting point for real negotiations, a proposal that would allow Iran to build a modern nuclear energy program,” Reuters quoted Solana as saying at a news conference after meeting Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
“It’s full of opportunities for Iran,” he added.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only and has repeatedly rejected international demands that it stops its uranium enrichment – a condition Solana said remains part of the package.
But Iranian officials continue to maintain a defiant stance towards these demands.
"Iran's view is clear: any precondition is unacceptable," Reuters quoted government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham as saying in a news conference today after Solana presented the offer to Mottaki.
"If the package includes suspension it is not debatable at all," he said.
In reaction to Elham’s statements, U.S. President George W. Bush today said during his visit to Paris that he was “disappointed.”
“I am disappointed that the Iranian leaders rejected this generous offer out of hand,” Bush said in a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.
But despite Elham’s comments, Iran has not officially rejected the offer.
Solana said he hopes Tehran’s official answer will be “soon and positive”.
Sources: Reuters, Agence France-Presse
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