Twitter
Advertisement

US wants Iran answer in nuclear standoff this week

The United States will give European negotiators until the end of the week to convince Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

WASHINGTON: The United States will give European negotiators until the end of the week to convince Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, and then pursue sanctions if Tehran fails to comply, a senior US official said.           

 

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the State Department's point man on Iran, told The Washington Times that a final round of talks scheduled this week between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani should bring "clarity."       

 

"If (Iran's answer) is maybe, it's a no," Burns was quoted as saying on Tuesday.   

 

"If it's 'We'd like to negotiate this further,' it has been negotiated for four months," Burns said.       

 

"At some point, you have to draw the line. So I think you'll have the answer by the end of the week," he said.       

 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice agreed to requests from her counterparts from the other four permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany last month to give the Solana-Larijani talks more time before turning to sanctions.              

 

But the so-called P5-plus-1 nations agreed to set a new deadline this week for Iran to comply with an earlier UN resolution demanding it freeze its uranium enrichment programme, which Washington and others believe is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.            

 

Rice, currently on a tour of the Middle East, said she could meet Friday in Europe with the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany to take stock of the Solana-Larijani talks.     

 

Burns has meanwhile been negotiating with his P5-plus-1 counterparts on a list of sanctions to be included in a new UN resolution if and when the six agree that negotiations have failed.              

 

A senior US official said on Monday that Burns had nearly obtained agreement among the six on the sanctions list, although he acknowledged it could still take time to thrash out the actual wording of a sanctions resolution.             

 

China and Russia have both voiced strong opposition to using sanctions against Iran, though Burns insisted in the interview that there was "unity" among the six on the issue.              

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly rejected the UN demand, although Larijani has reportedly offered a temporary halt to enrichment during which the six powers would negotiate a longer-term resolution of the standoff.         

 

Those talks would include providing Iran with economic and diplomatic rewards, including the first direct diplomatic contacts with Washington in nearly 30 years.         

 

But in the interview published Tuesday Burns was quoted as rejecting a proposal that Washington give Iran a formal pledge not to use military action against the country as part of the deal.    

 

Washington does not want to grant security guarantees to Iran because of concerns over its support for Islamic militants in the region, most notably its backing for Lebanon's Hezbollah in its recent war with Israel but also of the Palestinian group Hamas, Burns was quoted as saying.       

 

"We saw the war this summer not to be just a border war," he said. "We saw this as a new element in the Middle East -- the Iranian and Syrian involvement."              

 

"We are also very concerned about this nexus of terrorism -- Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas. We think they are coordinating their actions, and we are trying to push back on that," he said.      

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement