|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Iran “Not Very Optimistic” About EU Nuclear Talks
Iran’s top nuclear official said yesterday that he was “not very optimistic” about a new round of nuclear talks with the European Union scheduled for this month, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 5). France, Germany and the United Kingdom had not yet come to grips with the election of hard-line President Mahmood Ahmadinejad, said Gholamreza Aghazadeh. “The Europeans were waiting for the election of the new president to present their proposals. Taking into account the personality of the new president, I think the negotiations will be more difficult,” said Aghazadeh. “I am not very optimistic about the European proposal. The Iranian nuclear case is very important and I think the capacity of the Europeans to solve it is very weak,” he said. “The Europeans have to understand that we are not worried about our case going to the [U.N.] Security Council,” said Aghazadeh (Siavosh Ghazi, Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, July 5). French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy yesterday said the EU might offer security guarantees for Tehran to halt its nuclear work, the Associated Press reported. “I think what we need to do is to base ourselves on finding a package which is credible for the Iranians,” said Douste-Blazy. In addition to offers of technical equipment, the EU negotiators should “make sure, also, that we discuss with them the security of their country,” he said. Speaking at the same press conference, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated Washington’s position that Iran should not have access to the nuclear fuel cycle. “There must be objective guarantees that Iran is not surreptitiously gaining the technology or technological know-how that might lead to the development of a nuclear weapon,” Rice said. “And that means enrichment, reprocessing and the entire — all of the activities associated with the fuel cycle.” “We have been very clear that we do not see the need for civilian nuclear power in Iran,” she said. Douste-Blazy appeared more open to civilian Iranian nuclear work. “I’d like to say that France was the first to start the negotiations and discussions with Iran on the possibility of having civil nuclear energy,” he said (Anne Gearan, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, July 5). The European Union would not, however, accept any nuclear weapons work by Iran, Douste-Blazy said. “It’s absolutely basic to remember that the word of the Paris agreement is indeed suspension. But having spoken with them and having made a proposal, I think it’s absolutely necessary to state that the Europeans will never accept a resumption of the Iranian military nuclear activities,” he said. Rice said the Paris agreement between Tehran and the European nations “is initially about suspension but ultimately the world has to be assured that Iran cannot have this capacity and that (there) would ultimately have to be objective guarantees and we believe that means cessation” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, July 5).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
