The United States, in a policy shift, is ready to join direct talks on Iran’s nuclear programme if Tehran suspends all uranium-enrichment activities, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.
Rice made the offer of the first substantive talks with Iran since diplomatic relations were broken off 26 years ago as she prepared to leave for a crucial meeting of world powers in Vienna on Tehran’s suspected nuclear arms programme.
”To underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance the prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU-3 [European Union-3 — Britain, France and Germany] colleagues and meet with Iran’s representatives,” she said in prepared remarks.
Her statement came with Washington under increasing pressure to join the negotiations led by its European allies.
To underscore the opening to the Islamic republic, a senior US State Department official said a copy of the statement was handed on Wednesday to the ambassador of Switzerland, which manages US interests in Tehran, to be passed on to the Iranians.
The official, who asked not to be named, said a copy was also being conveyed to Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
Iranian officials, who have consistently rejected demands to freeze uranium enrichment, were not immediately available for comment on the US offer.
The US official did not confirm reports from Vienna that the US concessions were linked to agreement by previously reluctant Russia and China to consider UN sanctions against Iran if negotiations stalled.
But he said the approach outlined by Rice has ”very strong support” from Russia and China as well as Britain and France, the other permanent members of the UN Security Council to meet in Vienna along with Germany.
”Russia and China have reacted very favourably,” he said, predicting success in the Vienna discussions on nailing down a common approach.
The US had previously refused to take part directly in efforts led by the EU-3 to use economic and other incentives to coax Iran away from its suspected bid to build a nuclear bomb.
The State Department official called Rice’s statement an ”extension” of the current policy but stressed the landmark significance of the offer for direct contact with the Iranians.
”The statement’s important because we have not had any meaningful contact with the Iranian government in the 26-and-a-half years since the Iranian hostage crisis unfolded on November 4 1979,” he said, referring to the seizure of US diplomats in Tehran.
He said there have been ”intermittent contacts”, but ”this is the first time that the United States will have offered to sit down and negotiate on a serious issue with Iran, and obviously the most serious is the issue of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons”.
The official ruled out US security guarantees for Iran and said Tehran would have to suspend uranium enrichment and all nuclear research activities for the talks to go ahead. — AFP
