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Iran not to respond to six-nation package: negotiator
5/7/2006 10:19

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said on Monday that he would not give Iran's response to the six-nation package over Iran's nuclear issue in his coming meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, local daily Tehran Times reported Tuesday.

Larijani made the remarks to reporters after his meeting with visiting Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani.

The meeting with Solana was meant to talk about the ways to solve the dispute in Iran's nuclear program, Larijani was quoted as saying, adding "the upcoming meeting will mark the beginning of our negotiations with Europe."

"We welcome any constructive and logical proposals that will help us proceed with talks," he said.

Diplomats said that Larijani and Solana would meet in Brussels on Wednesday.

Western powers have recently mounted pressures on Iran, asking the country to formally respond in Solana's meeting with Larijani to the six-nation package which demands Iran suspend uranium enrichment activities in return for economic and political incentives.

"We are looking forward to a clear and substantive Iranian response to these proposals at the planned meeting," foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized countries said in a statement in Moscow last Thursday.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki immediately responded in New York that Tehran would not give a response to the proposals before August.

On June 6, Solana offered Iran the incentive package concerning the Iranian nuclear issue, which was agreed on by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

The proposals include both incentives aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and possible sanctions if Iran does not comply.

The United States has accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under a civilian front, a charge categorically denied by Tehran.



Xinhua News