IRAN: Kofi Annan says Iran prepared to negotiate on nuclear issue and reaffirmed its support for Lebanon truce resolution

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday (September 3) Iran wanted to find a negotiated solution to its nuclear dispute with the West but would not freeze uranium enrichment ahead of any talks. "On the nuclear issue, the president reaffirmed to me Iran's preparedness and determination to negotiate and find a solution to the crisis," Annan told a news conference in Tehran. Annan added that Ahmadinejad had told him Iran "does not accept suspension (of uranium enrichment) before negotiations", as demanded by the U.N. Security Council. The U.N. chief has been touring the region seeking to shore up the ceasefire that halted a 34-day war in Lebanon. His Iran leg of the trip also came just days after Iran failed to meet a U.N. Security Council deadline to halt sensitive nuclear work. Annan held talks on Saturday (September 2) about the Lebanon truce and the nuclear standoff with senior Iranian officials, including chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, and met with Ahmadinejad on Sunday. Ahmadinejad told Annan he was committed to resolution 1701, and wanted to work towards the rebuilding Lebanon. Iran failed to heed an August 31 deadline set by the U.N. Security Council to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can be used to make fuel for power stations or material for warheads. It now faces the threat of sanctions. The United States said on Friday (September 1) it was consulting European governments about possible sanctions against the Islamic Republic, but the EU has signalled it wants more dialogue and has agreed to try to clarify Iran's stance within two weeks. Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said nuclear negotiations had been set back by the actions of the West. "Half way through the negotiations with Iran, they made a notable mistake by producing an illegal and political agreement, a result of political pressure from The US and England, which is a negative step for them in this journey that we began together," he said. Iran has repeatedly shrugged off the threat of sanctions, saying they would hurt industrialised countries more than Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, because such a step would drive already high oil prices higher still. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference he thought the issue of sanctions was more like a "psychological game." "It was stressed that we should take the discussions with Solana very seriously, and if Europe wishes to have discussions with us, we have also expressed that we are ready to proceed. From the very beginning we have wanted to have discussions to resolve this issue," he said. Iran has insisted on holding more talks to resolve the dispute, although some Western diplomats have viewed that as a tactic by Tehran to stall and avoid taking action. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Larijani in the week ahead to try to clear up ambiguities in Tehran's reply to the major powers' offer of broad cooperation if it stops the nuclear work. The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany had offered Iran a package of economic and other incentives to halt enrichment, which Iran insists is its national right that it will never abandon.

ITN Source | September 3, 2006

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