UN ministers discuss package for Iran
Thursday, 1 June 2006 12:00 AM
Foreign secretary Margaret Beckett will meet with colleagues from the UN security council and Germany today to finalise details of a new package to offer Iran.
The meeting in Vienna comes after Iran rejected an offer by the US to begin discussions for the first time since 1980, on the condition that it give up its nuclear programme.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that Washington was prepared to "exert strong leadership to give diplomacy its very best chance to succeed".
"As soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU colleagues and meet with Iran's representatives," she said.
"We are agreed with our European partners on the essential elements of a package containing both benefits if Iran makes the right choice and costs if it does not."
However, while Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country was open to discussions with Washington, he insisted it would not give up its programme of uranium enrichment, which was begun in January after a two and a half year suspension.
"We will not give up our nation's natural right [to enrichment], we will not hold talks over it. But we are ready to hold talks over mutual concerns," he told reporters.
"Rice's statement was not something new. This is what was said in her previous speeches and interviews. It lacked a logical and new solution to resolve Iran's nuclear issue."
Many in the international community fear enrichment is the first step towards Iran getting nuclear weapons, although Tehran insists it is only interested in nuclear energy.
Today's meeting will see the five permanent members of the UN security council, Germany and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana iron out details on a package of incentives and threats to get Iran to end its enrichment process.
Reports suggest it could see the international community provide Tehran with a foreign supply of atomic fuel, so it need not enrich uranium itself, with a package of sanctions such as visa bans if it did not comply.
Ms Rice's offer yesterday is widely being seen as an attempt to win around Russia and China, who are opposed to taking strong action against Iran and have rejected any attempts to pass a UN security resolution saying Tehran is a threat to international peace.
Last night, Ms Beckett welcomed Washington's proposals to join the negotiating table, saying: "We are all striving to reach a diplomatic solution.
"The European side's goal is to present a serious and substantial offer of co-operation, which demonstrates to Iran the benefits that would flow from compliance with the IAEA's successive resolutions, rather than the further isolation which would result from their failure to do so," she said.
"For this to be successful, we need the active support of other parties. The US offer will, therefore, give added weight to the proposals which foreign ministers will be discussing in Vienna tomorrow. I urge Iran to respond positively to this opportunity."
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