Foreign ministers from world powers held intensive discussions on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme on Monday, a United States spokesperson said, but there was no sign whether they made any progress on a unified position.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted talks and a dinner for her counterparts from Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union in a bid to find some common ground on their approach to Iran’s suspected efforts to build nuclear weapons.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said the six ministers spent two hours seated on couches in the presidential suite of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, far exceeding the 45 minutes originally planned for their discussions. They were accompanied by interpreters but no aides for the talks, which continued over dinner with staff present.
The United States has been pushing for a tough United Nations Security Council resolution to force Iran to halt uranium enrichment activities but Russia and China, which both wield a veto on the 15-member Security Council, have resisted punitive measures against Iran, their ally and key trading partner.
”This is a time for the international community to come together and say with very great clarity it’s time for Iran to accede to the demands of the international community,” Rice said after pre-dinner talks with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
McCormack said Monday’s talks were focused on ”strategic level discussions”, including Tehran’s human rights record and support for terrorism.
”It was not intended as a discussion about the language on a resolution,” the spokesperson told reporters.
”This was intended more as a strategic level discussion about how to deal with various issues presented by Iran to the international community,” he said.
The spokesperson provided no details of the discussions among Rice, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, China’s Li Zhaoxing, Britain’s Beckett, France’s Philippe Douste-Blazy, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Javier Solana of the European Union.
McCormack also said Rice discussed with the ministers the letter made public on Monday from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offering talks on a range of issues with the United States, but did not elaborate.
”She did talk to them a little bit about it,” was all he would say.
Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, said the missive could lead to new diplomatic openings in the region, but made it clear that it did not reflect a softening in Tehran’s stance toward Washington.
The United States has not had direct diplomatic relations with Iran since April 1980, following the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held for 444 days.
A White House official said Ahmadinejad’s letter would not change Washington’s position on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
”Nothing in the letter addresses the issues between Iran and the international community,” said Frederick Jones, a spokesperson for US National Security Council.
US intelligence czar John Negroponte said the Iranian letter could be a bid to influence the Security Council debate on Iran’s nuclear programme.
France and Britain have circulated a draft resolution to the Security Council that would invoke chapter seven of the UN Charter — which can authorise sanctions or even military action as a last resort.
The draft would oblige Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, the process creating fuel for nuclear reactors and — potentially — the core of an atomic bomb. It warns, in cases of Iranian non-compliance, of unspecified ”further measures” requiring another resolution.
Resolutions need at least nine yes votes and no veto from any of the council’s permanent members to pass. – AFP
