Iran yesterday said Switzerland had drawn up an offer to ease the standoff between Tehran and the West over the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program.
"We still do not have the contents of what the Swiss have proposed but if these propositions guarantee the right of Iran to nuclear materials this can be examined," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
It was the first time such an approach by Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran in the absence of a US embassy, had been evoked by Iranian officials. A diplomat at the Swiss embassy declined to comment.
"We are due to officially receive this plan, perhaps our officials including [chief nuclear negotiator Ali] Larijani have already received it," Hosseini told reporters. "They must examine the details and the technical conditions but we are ready to consider any plan which guarantees our rights."
Meanwhile, the EU yesterday agreed to adopt UN sanctions to punish Tehran, but held the door open for negotiations.
"We want to maintain the door open for negotiation, but Iran knows what we want them to do," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
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