AUSTRIA: Iran says it finds no technical or legal grounds for a timeout in nuclear activity and cannot start negotiations with preconditions.

EU powers urged Iran on Wednesday (March 7) to embrace a UN idea of a "time-out" from nuclear activity they fear could yield atom bombs, saying sanctions they sponsored against Tehran would be simultaneously suspended. Iran rejected the overture, insisting its bid for nuclear energy was peaceful, legal and non-negotiable. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, told reporters, "We don't find any technical or legal grounds for it, and after all we have said that we cannot start negotiations with pre-conditions. This is not legal and this is not justified, it's not fair. We can immediately start and we invite them to immediately sit down at the negotiating table and all issues could be discussed with the parties concerned, we have not even limited the parties concerned." The EU appeal, coupled with condemnation of Iran's effort to speed up uranium enrichment past a Feb. 21 UN Security Council deadline for it to stop, came at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors. Members of the 35-nation board were expected on Thursday to ratify sharp cuts in IAEA technical aid to Iran to uphold UN sanctions banning exports of materials or expertise to Tehran of possible use in making nuclear fuel. Soltanieh told a news conference in Vienna that the U.S. had selected parts of the IAEA report and ignored the position of other NAM ( Non Aligned Movement) countries. "I wonder if the media have noticed this one as an important signal which gives crystal clear signal that whenever the Americans are saying that (the) International community has a concern about nuclear activities of Iran, the international community, community as the U.S. defines is U.S. administration. Because Non-Aligned Movement are 118 countries have continuously declared that they don't have any concern about nuclear activities of Iran, on the contrary, they have always supported Iran's right for nuclear activities," he said. He reminded reporters of their duty to report the story accurately. "You are responsible for international community, you have to reflect what is the fact. Unfortunately the NAM - Non-Aligned Movement position have been totally ignored for the last four years. The world have the right to know that only few countries, and few handful of countries on the Board of Governors because of the political motivation, send this issue to the United Nations Security Council and opened a track of confrontation. The majority of member states have been always against it and call upon negotiating solution and to keep the issue within the framework of the IAEA. I request you to duly reflect this fact to the international community," he said. Speaking at the news conference on behalf of the European Union, Peter Gottwald, German ambassador to the IAEA said Western leaders remained fully committed to seeking a negotiated solution. "Let me also point out that we concluded our statement (inside Board meeting) by stressing very much, and I think I should quote that to you that European Union reaffirms its continued support for efforts to find a negotiated long-term solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and that a comprehensive offer is still on the table and the door to re-negotiations remains open," said Gottwald. He said that Iran had not complied with the UN resolution and that further action would be taken. "Well obviously, there is a logic in the Security Council resolution 1737 and as we have just stated, the Islamic republic of Iran so far has not complied with that resolution, so that resolution already foresees further action and that action is actually going on in New York right now." The United States, EU3, Russia and China are now negotiating to widen the preliminary UN sanctions adopted in December. Diplomats said the United States shared the EU position at the board but kept a low profile, avoiding the sharp political attacks it has made on Iran at previous IAEA meetings so as not to upset Tehran in pending talks on stabilising Iraq.

ITN Source | March 8, 2007

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