Iran Won't Be Forced Into Talks Over Nuclear Plans, Leader Says
by Neil King Jr.
Iran's president continued to dodge questions about his country's nuclear ambitions, saying Tehran is willing to negotiate over - and maybe even suspend - its uranium-enrichment program, but not under pressure and only under "fair conditions".
...
Once again Iran appears to have offered just enough encouragement to keep the threat of sanctions at bay, but not enough to make it clear when or if actual talks might begin.
...
Meanwhile, European Union officials say that EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana is prepared to travel anywhere in the world to sit down with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Larijani, to discuss conditions for these talks. Mr. Larijani declined to come to New York this week for talks with Mr. Solana.
...
Signs are emerging, however, that some countries in Europe may be willing to allow Iran to keep at least some enrichment activity, a move that the U.S. has opposed in the past.
...
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said in a statement that "Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to go ahead in research in the nuclear field, and I insisted on the need for a complete halt in the military aspect of the research," indicating that the EU is prepared to allow Iran to continue on strictly scientific research.
...
Mr. Ahmadinejad also warned that any pressure could derail recent talks between Europe and Iran over commencing more-formal negotiations. "Hopefully others will not disrupt the work - in small ways perhaps," he said, apparently alluding to U.S. threats to move ahead on U.N. sanctions.
...
He insisted again that his country had no aims to make a nuclear weapon and urged the U.S. to give up its nuclear arsenal.
...
The U.S. and its partners suspect that Iran is pursuing the technology involved in enriching uranium in order to make a nuclear bomb. They want Iran to set that word aside and agree to supply any future nuclear plants with fuel acquired from outside sources such as Russia.
Excerpted from the print edition of the Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2006.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment