Iran will only talk on common points with 5+1
Tehran Times Political Desk
Tehran – Government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said on Saturday that Tehran is prepared to hold talks with the six world powers on the “common points” in the two sides’ proposals.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on June 14 put forward an updated package of incentives on behalf of Britain, the United States, France, Russia, China, and Germany in return for a halt in Iran’s uranium enrichment work.
The package follows an original proposal in 2006, offering nuclear cooperation and wider trade in aircraft, energy, high technology, and agriculture.
Iran has also presented its own package of proposals, offering solutions to international challenges including the threat of atomic weapons proliferation.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Elham said “Tehran has asserted in the letter that it will only hold talks on the common points.”
He vowed that Iran will press on with its uranium enrichment activities in the face of the major powers’ demands to suspend the program as a precondition for talks.
“Iran’s stance on the nuclear issue has not changed and we are ready to hold talks with different countries including the 5+1.”
He rejected reports that Tehran has recently adopted a softer tone on the offer of incentives, saying, “Iran will not relinquish its right (to access nuclear technology). This is the path the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) has defined and it will be followed.”
“People are free to express their personal point of view. But it is the government which has the responsibility to make decisions on the nuclear issue,” the spokesman stressed.
His comments came a day after Iran’s ambassador to Brussels presented Solana with Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki’s response to the six powers’ letter on ending the West’s prolonged nuclear standoff with the Islamic Republic.
In a telephone conversation with Solana on Friday, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said Iran has provided a “creative and constructive” response to the sextet’s letter “with a focus on common ground between the two sides.”
The two also agreed to hold further talks later this month.
Solana’s spokeswoman Cristina Gallach confirmed that the response had been delivered Friday evening in a letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief and to the foreign ministers of the six countries that submitted the offer.
Jalili and Solana “had a positive, constructive conversation. They agreed to remain in contact,” AFP quoted Gallach as saying.
Tehran Times July 6
