The White House said yesterday that it will not promptly parse Iran's
response to a package of proposals agreed on by six nations to solve the nuclear
standoff.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, who is traveling with U.S. President
George W. Bush to Minnesota, made the comments to reporters aboard Air Force
One.
"I'm not going to parse the Iranian government's document today here on the
airplane. That is a job best left to the diplomats," she said.
Perino said the Bush administration had received a copy of the Iranian
response but she did not believe Bush had read it.
She stressed that Bush has made very clear in Monday's press conference that
he thinks Iran's nuclear program "would be a mistake and dangerous for the
region and the whole world."
"Let the diplomats take a look at this response before we parse it out too
much here," Perino added.
Earlier in the day, top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijanihanded over to
foreign ambassadors in Tehran Iran's formal response to a package of proposals
agreed on by six nations to solve the nuclear standoff without disclosing any
details of the reply.
The six nations are China, Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Switzerland.
Larijani also said his country is ready to start "serious talks" over its
nuclear program as of Wednesday.