Agencies
Tehran, May 16:
Iran and a delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finished their three-day talks here without reaching any new results, Iran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog said.
The talks were held between Iran's IAEA envoy Ali-Asqar
Soltanieh and IAEA regional chief Herman Nackaerts at Iran's
Atomic Energy Organization. 'Nothing new was raised and decided
in this round of talks,' Soltanieh told the news agency after
the talks were over. An IAEA delegation headed by chief inspector
Olli Heinonen visited Tehran twice last month and discussed
allegations that Iran was pursuing secret weapons studies.
This week's visit is expected to have focused on the same
issue. Soltanieh doubted that the IAEA officials would want
to hold more sessions in Tehran but declared Iran's readiness
for further talks.
Iran has in the meantime delivered what it called 'Iran's
proposed package for constructive negotiations', which - besides
Iran's vision on how to settle global problems such as effective
fight against terrorism - also includes the nuclear dispute.
The package was Tuesday sent by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a copy of
it to the foreign ministers of the five permanent member states
of the UN Security Council. Another copy was sent to European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. While guaranteeing
the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear projects and readiness
to hold talks with the five veto powers plus Germany, Mottaki
once again rejected in the package the main Western demand
of a suspension of uranium enrichment. Mottaki further criticized
the UN for allegedly ignoring reports by the IAEA on Iran's
nuclear programmes and instead referring the dossier to the
Security Council, which eventually led to three resolutions
and financial sanctions against Tehran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday in a press conference
in Tehran that the details of the package would be disclosed
in Iran by the end of next month. Ahmadinejad further rejected
any incentives by the West for ending the nuclear dispute
and said Iran would follow its legal nuclear rights without
either being encouraged by incentives nor intimidated by Western
pressure and threats. Ahmadinejad was referring to an upgraded
incentive offer by the the Security Council members and Germany,
aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities.