IRAN: Iranians react to visit to Tehran of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Iranians on Sunday (September 3) reacted to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit to Iran days after a UN deadline for Iran to stop enriching uranium passed unheeded by Teheran. Oneman in Tehran, Ali Mohamadi, said: "Talks are inevitable. In my opinion he (Annan) is under pressure from America. That is why he is here. I dont think, however, the talks will come to anything." Another man, Naser Karami, said: "America is pursuing sanctions in order to put pressure on us so that we would abandon our rights. I also think that diplomatic resolution is what Kofi Annan is looking for and this is why he is in Iran This is the best way for us to reach our rights." Annan is to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday. Ahmadinejad has been an staunch opponent of compromise over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at building atomic bombs but which Tehran insists is only to produce electricity. Iran failed to heed an Aug. 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. At a news conference on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad was asked how he would respond if Annan asked Iran to suspend enrichment, which the president has repeatedly said was Iran's right that would not be abandoned. The United States said on Friday it was consulting European governments about possible sanctions against Iran, but the European Union has signalled it wants more dialogue and agreed on Saturday to try to clarify Iran's stance within two weeks. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, next week to try to clear up ambiguities in Tehran's reply to an offer backed by six nations of broad cooperation if it stops the nuclear work. Annan also met Larijani, who was quoted afterwards as saying both sides had agreed on the need for negotiations. Iran has repeatedly called for more talks to solve the dispute, which some Western diplomats have said was a tactic to stall instead of taking action to halt atomic work. The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany had offered Iran a package of economic and other incentives to halt enrichment. A U.N. official has said Tehran would cooperate on a truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hizbollah. Annan 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 comes just days after Iran failed to meet a U.N. Security Council deadline to halt sensitive nuclear work. The U.N. chief held talks on Saturday about the Lebanon truce and the nuclear standoff with senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. "He (Mottaki) concluded by saying that we can count on his full cooperation" over U.N. resolution 1701, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told Reuters after the talks. Resolution 1701 drew up the terms for the ceasefire, including expanding an existing U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon and calling for an arms embargo on Hizbollah. Iran funded and armed Hizbollah in the 1980s although it now says its support is primarily moral and political. But Iran is still widely believed to be the main arms supplier for the Lebanese militia. Annan raised the arms embargo issue with Mottaki during his talks, Fawzi said, but did not give further details. Ahmadinejad had told Annan in telephone talks prior to the visit that Iran had reservations about some articles of the resolution but had also said Iran would cooperate in its implementation, Fawzi said. He did not give details. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi did not say if Iran had offered to cooperate over the Lebanon resolution when he was asked about the issue at a news conference. Annan will meet Ahmadinejad on Sunday before he returns to Qatar, the only Arab state currently with a seat on the U.N. Security Council. He has previously visited Lebanon, Israel and Syria, another Hizbollah ally.

ITN Source | September 3, 2006

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