Geneva - Iran and world powers - including for the first
time the United States - failed Saturday in Geneva to find a way
toward full negotiations, as Tehran's representatives did not agree
to the precondition of suspending uranium enrichment.
Speaking at a news conference after talks with Iranian negotiator
Saeid Jalili, EU chief diplomat Solana said that 'the most important
question' in the dispute with Iran remained unanswered.
On behalf of the five United Nations Security Council veto powers
and Germany, Solana met with Jalili to talk about future economic,
political and nuclear energy cooperation, once Tehran halts its
nuclear activities.
The meeting had the goal of achieving full negotiations by
squaring the world powers' precondition of nuclear suspension with
Iran's insistence on its right to civilian nuclear energy.
'We have not gotten an answer,' Solana told reporters. 'We have
talked frankly.'
He suggested that talks with Iran would continue within weeks,
expressing his hope that Tehran would reply within 14 days.
After the meeting, the United States urged Tehran to respond soon
to a package of incentives offered by world powers in exchange for an
Iranian pledge to suspend uranium enrichment. State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that the US would support
additional UN Security Council sanctions if Iran failed to accept the
offer.
'We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to
make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all,
and confrontation, which can only led to further isolation,'
McCormack said.
Seeking to break the diplomatic stalemate over Iran's nuclear
activities, the United States broke with past policy and sent a
senior envoy, Under Secretary of State William Burns, to the talks to
demonstrate Washington was committed to a diplomatic solution.
Burns was the first highest-ranking US diplomat in three decades
to meet with an Iranian envoy. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
has made it clear that despite this signal to Tehran, the US still
demands that Iran halt uranium enrichment before full negotiations
can begin.
During the meeting, Burns reiterated the US position but did not
negotiate with the Iranians or hold one-on-one talks with Jalili.
Solana and Jalili both said the talks had been 'constructive.'
Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China are
offering Iran a 'freeze-for-freeze' approach. In a pre-negotiation
phase, Tehran would not expand its Natanz enrichment facility, while
the six powers would not press for additional Security Council
sanctions.
After confidence between the two sides has been established in the
first phase, Iran would halt its uranium enrichment, and
comprehensive talks could start on the world powers' offer of
cooperation and a similar package put forward by Iran.
Jalili said that both sides had talked about the freeze-for-freeze
phase for 'many, many hours.' He said it was more important to find a
'constructive approach ... to address our common concerns.'
After the talks, an unnamed Iranian official in Tehran told Iran's
ISNA news agency that Jalili 'has proposed to keep the 6+1 model as
this model would be more effective to reach a settlement for this
(nuclear dispute) issue as well as regional matters,' an unnamed
Iranian official told ISNA.
McCormack said the US role in the meeting 'strengthened the
position' of the six powers in their commitment to pursue 'further
disincentives' - including sanctions - 'should Iran not choose the
path of cooperation.'
At the Geneva meeting, Iran presented a paper that focuses on
future cooperation without addressing the six nations' demands, a
Western diplomat said.
Representatives from Britain, France, Russia and China and Germany
also attended the meeting in Geneva. The six countries are concerned
that Iran could one day use its civilian nuclear programme to build
nuclear weapons, an allegation that Tehran strongly denies.
Jalili compared the ongoing diplomacy to carpet weaving that
'moves ahead in millimetres.'
'And again, to some extent it is similar to Iranian carpets
because it is a very precise work, it's in certain cases a very
beautiful endeavor, and hopefully the end result, the final product,
would be beautiful to behold,' he said.
World powers have tried to stop Tehran's nuclear programme ever
since it became clear in 2002 that Iran had hidden its activities
from IAEA inspectors for 18 years.
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