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July 19, 2008
Geneva Talks Find No
Path to Full Iran Negotiations
Geneva
Iran and world powers, including the US for the first time, failed
to find a way towards full negotiations in Geneva Saturday, 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 UN Security Council veto powers and Germany, Solana
met Jalili to talk about future cooperation in the areas of economy,
nuclear energy and politics, once Tehran halts its nuclear
activities.
The meeting was supposed to make full negotiations possible 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. He suggested
that talks with Iran would continue within weeks, expressing his
hope that Tehran would reply within fourteen days.
"We have talked frankly," Solana said, but both he and Jalili said
the talks had been "constructive".
Britain, France, Germany, the US, Russia and China are offering Iran
a "freeze for freeze" approach. In a pre-negotiation phase, Tehran
would not expand its enrichment facility in Natanz, while the six
nations would not press for additional Security Council sanctions.
After confidence between the two sides has been established in this
phase, Iran would halt its uranium enrichment, and comprehensive
talks about the world powers' offer of cooperation and similar
package put forward by Iran could start.
When Jalili was asked by reporters about the freeze-for-freeze
phase, he said that both sides had talked about it for "many, many
hours". He said it was more important to find a "constructive
approach ... to address our common concerns".
Iran presented a paper at the talks that focuses on future
cooperation without addressing the six nations' demands, a Western
diplomat said.
The US representative at the talks, Undersecretary of State William
Burns, was the first US diplomat in 30 years to attend negotiations
with Iran.
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.
Representatives from Britain, France, Russia and China and Germany
also attended the meeting in Geneva, the city in neutral Switzerland
that has hosted many peace-making efforts in past decades.
The six countries are concerned Iran could one day use its civilian
nuclear programme to build atom bombs, an allegation which 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
endeavour, 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.
DPA
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July 19, 2008
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