An Iranian proposal made public on Thursday offers wide-ranging talks with the West but is silent about its nuclear program, a mixed message that may undercut any push for further UN sanctions on Iran for now.
Separately, an Iranian official ruled out any talks about Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which the West suspects may be a cover for developing nuclear weapons but which Iran says is solely intended to produce electrical power.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Iranian proposal provided something to work with, and he ruled out the possibility of sanctions on Iran’s lifeblood oil sector.
Western powers are becoming frustrated by what they have called Tehran’s “persistent defiance and point-blank refusal” to suspend uranium enrichment and its avoidance of negotiations as demanded by UN Security Council resolutions since 2006.
Instead of directly addressing those demands, Iran handed world powers on Wednesday a five-page proposal — first made public by a US Web site — that spoke generally of talks on political, security, international and economic issues.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran voices its readiness to embark on comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive negotiations aiming at acquiring a clear framework for cooperative relationships,” said the proposal released by ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism.
The document’s authenticity was confirmed by a diplomat briefed on the proposal.
The US said the proposal was “not really responsive to our greatest concern, which is obviously Iran’s nuclear program.”
Among the issues Iran said it was willing to discuss was “putting into action real and fundamental programs toward complete disarmament and preventing development and proliferation of nuclear, chemical and microbial weapons.”
The proposal also held out the possibility of talks on “the root causes of terrorism,” energy security, preventing another global financial crisis, solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reforming the UN Security Council.
“Tehran is prepared to have fair and substantive talks about various problems, including the guarantee of access by all countries to nuclear energy and preventing the proliferation of nuclear arms,” Iranian state television quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, as saying. “But these talks do not include Tehran’s nuclear program and legal activities in this connection.”
The US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are evaluating Iran’s plan and their senior diplomats were to hold a conference call to discuss it yesterday.
US President Barack Obama has suggested Iran may face much harsher international sanctions, possibly targeting its imports of gasoline, if it does not accept good-faith negotiations by the end of this month.
But Russia, which has veto power in the UN Security Council, ruled out oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“Based on a brief review of the Iranian papers my impression is there is something there to use,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
“The most important thing is Iran is ready for a comprehensive discussion of the situation, what positive role it can play in Iraq, Afghanistan and the region,” he said.
A European diplomat, however, was skeptical.
“It’s hard to understand what the Russians see in the Iranian paper,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The media shouldn’t be calling it a proposal. It’s as vague as all the previous so-called proposals.”
Another official familiar with the deliberations of the six major powers said Iran’s proposals did not appear to pass “the smell test” but were being analyzed to determine whether they represented an opening for negotiations.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in