A US decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks has fizzled, with Iran stonewalling Washington and five other world powers on their call to freeze uranium enrichment.
In response, the six gave Iran two weeks to respond to their demand, setting the stage for a new round of UN sanctions.
Iran’s refusal on Saturday to consider suspending enrichment was an indirect slap at the US, which had sent Undersecretary of State William Burns to the talks in hopes the first-time US presence would encourage Tehran into making concessions.
Diplomats refused to characterize the timeframe as an ultimatum, but it appeared that Iran now has a de facto deadline to show flexibility.
EU envoy Javier Solana said that Iran still has to answer a request made on behalf of the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany to “refrain from any new nuclear activity.”
“We have not gotten all the answers to the questions,” Solana told reporters.
He said the two-week timeframe was meant to give Iran the space to come up with “the answers that will allow us to continue.”
A US official was blunter.
“We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all, and confrontation, which can only lead to further isolation,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
In diplomatic terms, “further isolation” is shorthand for economic and political sanctions.
Keyvan Imani, a member of the Iranian delegation, cast doubt over the value of the talks less then an hour after they started.
“Suspension — there is no chance for that,” he told reporters.
Imani also downplayed the presence of Burns — even though the US had previously said it would not talk with the Iranians on nuclear issues unless they were ready to stop all enrichment.
“He is [just] a member of the delegation,” Imani said.
Chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili evaded the issue of suspension, demanded as part of the six-power proposal that carries a commitment of no new UN sanctions in exchange for an Iranian pledge to stop expanding, with officials speaking positively of deliberations by the Bush administration to open an interests section — an informal diplomatic presence — in Tehran after closing the US embassy decades ago.
Iran and the US broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. Official contact between the two countries is extremely rare.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS