Iran says 'new process' underway in nuclear crisis
Thursday, 3 July 2008
TEHRAN, July 2 (AFP): Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said a "new process" was underway in the five-year nuclear crisis with the West after the delivery of a proposal by world powers to Tehran, media reported Wednesday.
"A process is underway and it started with the package delivered by Iran," Mottaki said in an interview with US media in New York, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
"This package presented tackled important questions and then on the other side the world powers offered their own package," he said.
Six world powers last month presented Iran with a proposal aimed at ending the crisis which offers technological incentives in exchange for Tehran suspending uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make an atomic bomb.
Iran's own package is a more all-embracing effort to solve global problems and notably suggests the setting up of a consortium in Iran for enriching uranium.
According to IRNA, Mottaki was asked about the question of suspending uranium enrichment. But he did not give any direct comment on the subject.
Mottaki said talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who presented the package in Tehran last month, were "respectful and a bit different from the past".
"We are studying it (the package) with a constructive regard," he said.
There has been speculation in the Western media in recent days that Tehran has been adopting a softer line in the standoff and may be prepared to offer concessions to break the deadlock.
The foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday it would be in Iran's interest to accept the package and warned against provocative remarks that could destabilise the situation.
"Those who are agitating against our interests want that we reject the offer. As a consequence, it is in our interests to accept it," Ali Akbar Velayati told the hardline Jomhouri Eslami newspaper in an interview.
However no Iranian official has suggested in the last months that Tehran is ready to give any ground on the key question of enrichment, which Iran must suspend in order to enter the talks offered by the world powers.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had repeatedly vowed that Iran will never suspend enrichment and Khamanei himself has said many times over the last years that Tehran will not back down in the standoff.
Iran insists its atomic drive is entirely peaceful and it needs nuclear energy for a growing population whose fossil fuels will eventually run out.
Reuters adds from Abu Dhabi: The United States will not allow Iran to block the Gulf, the waterway that carries crude from the world's largest oil exporting region, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said Wednesday.
"Iran will not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz and we will not allow them to close the Strait of Hormuz. I can't say it anymore clearly than that," Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, told a conference on Gulf naval security in Abu Dhabi.
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in remarks published last week that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway if it was attacked.
Washington says its warships were threatened by Iranian craft in the Strait of Hormuz in January. Tehran dismissed it as a routine contact and accused the United States of exaggerating for propaganda purposes.
Asked whether he was worried incidents between U.S. naval ships and Iranian guard boats could escalate, Cosgriff said he was concerned because he did not know whether the Iranian vessels were controlled directly by the government in Tehran or by local commanders.
The Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.
"A process is underway and it started with the package delivered by Iran," Mottaki said in an interview with US media in New York, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
"This package presented tackled important questions and then on the other side the world powers offered their own package," he said.
Six world powers last month presented Iran with a proposal aimed at ending the crisis which offers technological incentives in exchange for Tehran suspending uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make an atomic bomb.
Iran's own package is a more all-embracing effort to solve global problems and notably suggests the setting up of a consortium in Iran for enriching uranium.
According to IRNA, Mottaki was asked about the question of suspending uranium enrichment. But he did not give any direct comment on the subject.
Mottaki said talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who presented the package in Tehran last month, were "respectful and a bit different from the past".
"We are studying it (the package) with a constructive regard," he said.
There has been speculation in the Western media in recent days that Tehran has been adopting a softer line in the standoff and may be prepared to offer concessions to break the deadlock.
The foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday it would be in Iran's interest to accept the package and warned against provocative remarks that could destabilise the situation.
"Those who are agitating against our interests want that we reject the offer. As a consequence, it is in our interests to accept it," Ali Akbar Velayati told the hardline Jomhouri Eslami newspaper in an interview.
However no Iranian official has suggested in the last months that Tehran is ready to give any ground on the key question of enrichment, which Iran must suspend in order to enter the talks offered by the world powers.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had repeatedly vowed that Iran will never suspend enrichment and Khamanei himself has said many times over the last years that Tehran will not back down in the standoff.
Iran insists its atomic drive is entirely peaceful and it needs nuclear energy for a growing population whose fossil fuels will eventually run out.
Reuters adds from Abu Dhabi: The United States will not allow Iran to block the Gulf, the waterway that carries crude from the world's largest oil exporting region, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said Wednesday.
"Iran will not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz and we will not allow them to close the Strait of Hormuz. I can't say it anymore clearly than that," Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, told a conference on Gulf naval security in Abu Dhabi.
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in remarks published last week that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway if it was attacked.
Washington says its warships were threatened by Iranian craft in the Strait of Hormuz in January. Tehran dismissed it as a routine contact and accused the United States of exaggerating for propaganda purposes.
Asked whether he was worried incidents between U.S. naval ships and Iranian guard boats could escalate, Cosgriff said he was concerned because he did not know whether the Iranian vessels were controlled directly by the government in Tehran or by local commanders.
The Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.