Tehran, September 03: Iran has again rejected the deadline for holding nuclear talks with the world powers and reiterated that the dispute over its atomic programme should only be dealt with by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the official news agency IRNA reported Thursday.
“The nuclear issue only concerns the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and not the member states of the UN Security Council and they (the world powers) should know that Iran will not give in to pressure,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said.
“Our nation is ready for dialogue but will not accept any imposed deadlines,” he added.
The six countries involved in the nuclear dispute with Iran – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany – called on Iran to enter talks before the end of September or otherwise face tougher sanctions.
“The sanction threats (by the West) are no longer an effective tool for making Iran retreat (from its right to pursue its nuclear programmes),” the spokesman said.
Referring to the new Iranian package of proposals which is to be forwarded to the six powers, Ghashghavi said it would deal with global peace, security and justice.
“There should be a realistic approach towards generalities as any approach on any specific issue would not work. We now have an opportunity for reviewing the past and deciding for tomorrow,” the spokesman said without further elaborating.
The new Iranian package is expected to contain Iran’s call for global nuclear disarmament, a new approach for settling the Middle East dispute in favour of Palestine and a new order for the veto right in the UN.
The main Western demand from Iran, however, which is the suspension of its uranium enrichment programme, is not believed to be explicitly mentioned and the package is therefore unlikely to bring any major breakthrough in the nuclear dispute.
The spokesman further rejected the view that the developments following Iran’s June 12 presidential election, especially the allegations of fraud, have led to Iran’s increased isolation.
The European Union has so far refrained from congratulating President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election due to the deaths of protestors and the mass arrests of the president’s critics.
–Agencies