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Powers discuss Iran sanctions
28/09/2007 21:07 - (SA)
New York - Six major powers trying to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions launched talks on Friday in search of an elusive compromise on new sanctions against the Islamic republic over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Shortly before the closed-door meeting got under way, German Foreign Minister Franck-Walter Steinmeier told reporters: "this meeting is not going to be simple".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice huddled with her counterparts from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to discuss a third round of sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Their meeting followed talks on Wednesday and Thursday by senior officials of the six nations.
But Russia and China want to give the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) more time to pursue technical discussions with Iran.
Sanctions 'now'
"There has been questions the Russians have raised, or the Chinese have raised particularly, on the timing of moving forward with a sanctions resolution," State Department spokesperson Sean McComarck said on Thursday. "We think the Security Council should move forward with a sanctions resolution. Now."
Iran and the IAEA agreed on a timetable last month for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its nuclear program, and officials from the UN's nuclear watchdog are in Iran for talks.
The IAEA has been probing Iran's program for the past four years but has so far failed to conclude whether it is peaceful or not.
US Under Secretary of State for political affairs Nicholas Burns said Wednesday that he did not anticipate a deal on a sanctions resolution at Friday's ministerial session.
As a sign of their deep divisions, the participants said there would be no joint press conference, as is customary, at the end of the meeting. US officials said a joint statement would be issued.
The six-way talks, on the margins of the ongoing UN General Assembly session, were to be followed two hours later by talks between Rice and her three European colleagues.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is attending both meetings, according to his spokeswoman.
Bilateral sanctions
"We are working very closely with some of those states that will be there - Germany, France, England - on bilateral sanctions issues," State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said on Thursday.
"The European Union is also working on its own set of possible sanctions as well. So we will be talking to them about those two tracks," he added.
Iran rejects Western charges that it is trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear program and insists it is entitled to pursue uranium enrichment as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The UN Security Council has passed two rounds of sanctions to force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used to supply the fuel for power generation or nuclear arms.?
But despite the threat of tougher sanctions, Iran refuses to budge.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly earlier this week that his nuclear standoff with the West was now a "closed" issue and that remaining outstanding questions should be handled by the IAEA.
Washington dismissed those comments, with Burns shooting back: "The Iranian president is badly mistaken if he thinks that the international community is going to forget about the fact that his country is continuing, against the will of the UN Security Council, its nuclear research program in Natanz."
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