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Iran to Address Nuclear Offer Next Week
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said yesterday that his country was committed to pursuing negotiations with the European Union aimed at resolving the standoff over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, Reuters reported (see GSN, July 6). However, Ali Larijani, who met with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana earlier in the day, said he would not yet respond to a compromise offer put forth by world powers last month. “We are serious about continuing negotiations and will start next Tuesday with talks,” Larijani said. He said he attended yesterday’s dinner “out of respect” for Solana but that he would not discuss responses to the incentives package until Tuesday (Reuters/Yahoo!News, July 7). The United States warned that the U.N. Security Council could take action if Tehran fails to compromise, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. “There’s the positive pathway. There’s a negative pathway (that) leads to further isolation,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “There’s agreement among all the ministers about where this heads if the Iranians don't meet the conditions, and that is down the pathway of the Security Council,” McCormack said (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, July 6). “The Iranian leadership said it is ready for dialogue and will answer by August,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “In our view they could have done this earlier.” He added, however, that Moscow remained opposed to sanctioning Tehran, AFP reported. “I agree that waiting endlessly is counterproductive, but even more counterproductive is to push the problem into a dead end which we will not know how to exit from,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/IranMania, July 6).
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