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| Good News! Iran seriously considering offer: Annan |
| 2006-06-22 |
| GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that Iran's foreign minister had told him Tehran was seriously considering an offer of incentives if it ends sensitive nuclear activities. That clinches it for me. "They are considering the package very, very seriously," Annan told a news conference in Geneva after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The West believes Iran wants to make highly enriched uranium that could be used in atomic bombs. The west believes this because the Iranians told the whole world. Tehran says it only wants to make low-level enriched fuel used in nuclear power stations.They said this too, but the world gave it less credibility than Reuters. As pressure developed on Iran to respond to the package quickly, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he expected to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator again, probably next week, to explain details of the offer. Did Solana do that because of the pressure developing on Iran? What is the source of that pressure? An Iranian official said the meeting would take place in the next two weeks and would give Tehran the chance to discuss what it has called "ambiguities" in the proposals. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Tehran would reply to the EU proposal by August 22, prompting President Bush to say that "seems like an awfully long time" to consider a plan Solana delivered to Iran on June 6. "It would be helpful and useful if we could get a response and know where the Iranians are before those meetings. It would advance the negotiating process," Stephen Hadley said. In New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton was asked what would happen if Iran rejected the offer. "I think we've made it clear that if the Iranians don't choose the path that has been presented to them, the alternative path is one of increasing isolation and we will be prepared to move very quickly in the Security Council," he said. Sounds like sanctions. No more gasoline for Tehran. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |