White House questions likelihood of Iran accepting 5+1 offer
Washington, 21 July (IranVNC)—The White House today hinted that it expects Iran to reject a package of incentives that six major powers – the U.S., UK, France, China, Russia and Germany – have offered that country to end its uranium enrichment work, and warned of further sanctions.
By: IranVNC
Published: Monday, July 21, 2008
18:07GMT—2:07PM/EST
US – IRAN – NUCLEAR – MCCAIN
Washington, 21 July (IranVNC)—The White House today hinted that it expects Iran to reject a package of incentives that six major powers – the U.S., UK, France, China, Russia and Germany – have offered that country to end its uranium enrichment work, and warned of further sanctions.
“It is the position of the P5+1 that Iran should suspend its uranium enrichment, that we provided a very generous incentives package that they apparently are going to miss an opportunity to accept,” spokesperson Dana Perino was reported by AFP as saying today.
Talks between EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and major powers, and Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, on Tehran’s nuclear program on Saturday ended in a stalemate when Tehran gave no reply to international demands to halt uranium enrichment. Talks are expected to resume in two weeks time.
Perino said that Iran could be looking at additional sanctions if it does not agree to suspend its sensitive nuclear work, a position that the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, repeated today.
The U.S. and Europe “can impose significant and very impactful sanctions on Iran which I think could modify their behavior,” McCain said in an interview on Israel’s Channel 2 TV network, reports the Jerusalem Post.
McCain further said that the U.S. “can never allow a second Holocaust”. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”, and that country considers Iran’s nuclear program a threat to its security. Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.
But McCain said diplomatic efforts had not been exhausted in resolving Iran’s longstanding nuclear dispute. “We have a lot of options to explore before we seriously explore the military option and I don’t think we have exercised those enough,” reports AFP.
Senator McCain also said he would not meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions, saying the Iranian president would probably “announce his country’s dedication to the extinction of the state of Israel”, according to AFP. McCain’s likely Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has said that he would meet with Ahmadinejad after certain “preparations”.
Sources: Agence France-Presse, Jerusalem Post
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