Iran: Tehran Rejects Nuclear Package

[sabra]

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.332745762&par=0

IRAN: TEHRAN REJECTS NUCLEAR PACKAGE



Tehran, 22 August (AKI) - The Iranian government on Tuesday formally rejected an offer by the five permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, of a package of incentives in return for Tehran halting uranium enrichment. The decision was widely expected, and the country's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Monday indicated that Iran would pursue its nuclear programme with force. The text of the reply was not immediately available but it is believed the wording is sufficiently open to interpretation and suggests further dialogue is possible. Ambassadors of the five UN Security Council members, with Switzerland standing in for the US which has had no diplomatic ties with Tehran since 1979, were summoned Tuesday morning to the office of the main nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).

On 6 June, the Security Council offered Iran a package of economic, technological and diplomatic incentives offered in exchange for halting uranium enrichment. Iran maintains its atomic ambitions are wholly peaceful, but Western powers fear that its uranium enrichment programme is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

[Ghost Dog]

1. Iran says it is ready for 'serious negotiations' on nuclear dispute

ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

August 22, 2006 8:11 AM

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran was ready to enter ''serious negotiations'' over its disputed nuclear program but did not say whether it was willing to suspend uranium enrichment - the West's key demand.

The negotiator, Ali Larijani, hand-delivered Iran's response to a Western package of nuclear incentives aimed at persuading it to suspend enrichment. He gave the reply to ambassadors from Britain, China, Russia, France, Germany and Switzerland, state-run television said, without disclosing details.

''Iran is prepared as of Aug. 23 to enter serious negotiations'' with the countries that proposed the package, state-run television quoted Larijani as telling the envoys.

EU officials declined to offer any immediate reaction, saying they needed to study the Iranian offer.

Officials said Iran offered a ''new formula'' to resolve the dispute as part of its formal response to a package of Western incentives aimed at persuading it to suspend enrichment. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

/more..: http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564791897659671381

[Ghost Dog]

2. Notice also:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/22/content_4994342.htm

China calls for new approaches to resume Middle East peace process
www.chinaview.cn 2006-08-22 21:46:34

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Tuesday that the parties concerned should launch new approaches to resume the Middle East peace process.

"My contacts with Arab officials have made me aware of a deep pessimism about the ongoing Lebanon-Israel and Palestine-Israel conflicts. Some officials believe the peace process is dead. I think we must generate new ideas and approaches so that the process can be resumed", Sun Bigan, China's special envoy on Middle East issues, said here at a press briefing.

The envoy stressed that the trend in favor of peace in the Middle East region will not be overturned by anyone's will no matter what difficulties or temporary failures may arise.

<snip>

China hopes the parties concerned will adopt a global perspective and exercise restraint to achieve substantial implementation of the resolution, Sun noted.

The envoy urged that adequate attention be paid to the Palestine-Israel issue at a time when the international community is focused on the Lebanon-Israel conflict.

/more...

[Ghost Dog]

4. A little more info just hit the net here:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060822/D8JLN9CO1.html

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said Washington will "study the Iranian response carefully" but was prepared to move forward with sanctions against Tehran if it was not positive. The White House held off commenting until it had studied the text. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the document was "extensive" and required "a detailed and careful analysis."

Iranian officials offered no details of what they called a "new formula" meant to bridge differences with the six powers - the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany - over its nuclear program. But Tehran's response appeared geared at enticing those countries into further negotiations by offering a broad set of proposals vague enough to hold out hope of progress in resolving the standoff.

<snip>

On Monday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Islamic Republic "has made its own decision and in the nuclear case, God willing, with patience and power, will continue its path." Khamenei accused the United States of putting pressure on Iran despite Tehran's assertions that its nuclear program was peaceful.

Iran's former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who is now a top adviser to Khamenei, said Iran's national interests, not the West's demands, should be the basis for Iran's decision.

"What we have achieved in nuclear technology is worth more than the pressures against us at the international stage," the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency quoted Velayati as saying Tuesday.

<snip>

The Western incentives package has not been made public but some details have leaked. They include an offer to lift a ban on sales of Boeing passenger aircraft, providing Iran with some nuclear technology to build reactors for civilian purposes and guaranteeing a supply of nuclear fuel.

/more...

..--> Sounds like attempted diplomacy, to my eye... Is diplomacy allowed, these days?

See latest Guardian/AP report/analysis here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6030956,00.html

[Ghost Dog]

5. By contrast, this disreputable source expresses itself thus:

http://www.fox6.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=D4764148-C474-405D-B9F5-A0E2D40361DF

Report says Iran won't stop uranium enrichments

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - They say they want "serious negotiations." But Iranian leaders are reportedly rejecting Western demands that they stop their nuclear activities.

A semi-official news agency in Iran says the government won't stop its uranium enrichment program. Instead, officials reportedly offered what's described as "a new formula to resolve the issues" through talks.

/"more"...

[Jacobin]

3. PNAC's plan is all coming together now......not

What a bunch of loonies we have running this country.

I've never really worried much about Israel. To me its another country like any other, deserving of the same level of concern. However, those who have a special concern for that country must be really anxious right now. There's not much to stop Iran, since it has allied itself with Russia and China.

The Cheney administration has put Israel at very serious risk of annihilation