Iran delivered a message to the EU yesterday as it faced a fresh ultimatum from six global powers to accept an incentives package to freeze sensitive nuclear work or face more UN sanctions.
But Iran insisted the message delivered to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was not a response to the latest offer drawn up by the major powers to end the five-year crisis over Tehran’s nuclear drive.
“The message delivered today is not Iran’s response to the six countries,” a source with the Supreme National Security Council said on condition of anonymity, without elaborating.
The Western warnings of fresh sanctions came as Iran declared that it could block the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial Gulf waterway through which much of the world’s oil supplies passes.
Britain had warned that the lack of a positive answer from Tehran by the end of yesterday would leave the powers with “no choice” but to ask the UN Security Council to take further punitive measures.
The new deadline was set after Iran ignored a previous demand to respond by last weekend to the package being offered by the permanent Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — and Germany.
The ultimatum came as Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired an anti-ship missile with a range of 300km that would allow it to close the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman.
“No enemy vessels would be able to escape it,” the commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on state television.
“Given the equipment our armed forces have, an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be very easy,” Jafari said.
Iran has recently boasted of developing new weapons and military hardware, but the claims have often met with skepticism from Western defense analysts.
Iran is the one of the world’s biggest crude oil producers and traders fear supply disruption from the Islamic republic if tension is further heightened.
On Monday, Solana held what a spokesman described as “inconclusive” talks with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
In June, Solana presented an offer of economic and trade incentives, while Iran has put forward its own proposal, an all-embracing package of suggestions to resolve the problems of the world, including the nuclear issue.
However, Tehran has steadfastly refused to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, saying it is allowed to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The UN has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its defiance and is mulling a fourth round of measures.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi on Monday dismissed the idea of a deadline as “media speculation” and insisted that negotiations were an “ongoing process.”
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
RSS