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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS