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EU, Iran to Discuss Compromise Offer
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday that he planned to meet soon with top Iranian officials to discuss the world powers’ nuclear compromise offer, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, June 22). “I expect to meet in the coming days, next week probably with [lead Iranian nuclear negotiator] Larijani,” Solana said. His spokeswoman said a high-level meeting was scheduled “for next week.” China and France, meanwhile, pressed for an expedited response on the deal from Tehran. “In our mind, it is a case of weeks rather than months,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei. “We believe that an early resumption of the talks on the Iranian nuclear issue as soon as possible is the common aspiration of the international community,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. Diplomats told AFP that Iran was probably buying time, not wanting to give an answer before a July meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations in St. Petersburg. “The delay suits Iran for two reasons: Tactically, they want to pass the G-8 meeting, and from an internal point of view there may be structural difficulties within the regime to take a strategic decision,” a Western diplomat said. “Obviously we would like an answer by the end of the month. It looks like buying time, but there may also be a genuine debate within the Iranian leadership regarding a suspension,” another diplomat said. “Regardless of the date when they reply, Iran will be the center of the G-8 meeting,” the diplomat added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 22). U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Iranian officials indicated to him that Tehran would not respond to the proposal before mid-July, the Associated Press reported. “I don’t think they will give an answer before the G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg,” Annan said after meeting with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley said it would be “helpful and useful if we could get a response and know where the Iranians are” before June 29. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said that deadline would provide “an ample period of time, very reasonable time in which Iran could respond.” “I think we’ve made it clear that if the Iranians don’t choose the path that’s been presented to them, the alternative path is one of increasing isolation — that we’d be prepared to move very quickly in the Security Council,” Bolton said (Alexander Higgins, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, June 23). Larijani said experts are “working round the clock” to formulate a response, which would include specific counteroffers, the London Guardian reported today. “We are not trying to construct the bomb. We don’t want the bomb. The Americans know this. And [U.S. Director of National Intelligence John] Negroponte announced some time ago that that Iranians don’t have the bomb and wouldn’t be able to make the bomb, even if they wanted to, for more than 10 years,” he said (The Guardian, June 23). Meanwhile, the Bush administration yesterday backed a U.S. Senate proposal to extend sanctions designed to steer foreign firms away from investing in Iran’s energy sector, AP reported. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns asked the Senate Banking Committee to refrain from toughening the sanctions, a move he said could weaken international efforts to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. The proposed Iran Sanctions Extension Act of 2006 would replace the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. The new act would no longer include Libya, according to AP. Tehran’s controversial nuclear efforts “placed a premium on the effectiveness of sanctions targeting Iran, especially those sanctions intended to minimize the financial assets” available to potentially develop nuclear weapons, said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) (George Gedda, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, June 23).
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