Iran rejects talks with the US
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said negotiations with the United States on the nuclear programme would be of no use to Iran, state television reported today.
Khamenei, who has the final word on all state matters, did not give his position on a package of incentives that the West has offered Iran in return for its imposing a long-term moratorium on the enrichment of uranium.
But he took a tough line on the final goal of the package: resuming negotiations that the United States hopes will convince Iran to completely give up enrichment.
“Negotiations with the United States would have no benefit for us, and we do not need them,” the television quoted Khamenei as telling Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
He said Iran was willing to hold talks but on its terms, warning that the West can misuse the negotiating process to bar Tehran from what it considers its right to pursue enrichment.
“We do not negotiate with anybody on achieving and exploiting nuclear technology,” Khamenei said. “But if they recognise our nuclear rights, we are ready to negotiate about controls, supervisions and international guarantees.”
His comments could be an attempt to ease pressure from Iran’s hardliners, who have demanded the government reject the incentives package and consider talks with the United States as a surrender.
Earlier this year, Khamenei came out in favour of holding negotiations with Washington – Iran’s top enemy – over stabilising its neighbour Iraq.
In doing so, he overruled hardliners’ opposition, though since then the prospects of US-Iranian talks on Iraq have fallen apart.
Iran has yet to reply to the incentives package presented to it on June 6. If Iran accepts, the United States has offered to join European nations in multilateral talks with Tehran over a framework that will guarantee its nuclear programme cannot produce weapons.
The package also offers the lifting of some US sanctions and other economic incentives, as well as a promise of US and European nuclear technology for Iran.
The promises were seen as a major concession by Washington, which lists Iran as a sponsor of international terrorism and there have been no diplomatic relations between the two countries since 1979, when militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took Americans hostage for 444 days.
The package of incentives seeks to persuade Iran to place a moratorium on uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear generators or the material for nuclear warheads. Iran has long refused to backdown on its enrichment programme, saying it has a right to the peaceful exploitation of nuclear energy.
The United States and Europe are pressing Iran to respond soon to the package, which was presented on June 6.
US President George Bush has expressed disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s saying last week that Iran would respond only in mid-August.
Bush has warned Iran that it faces UN Security Council action unless it accepts the incentives. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned Iran on Saturday that it faces isolation if it rejects the package.
The US and its allies suspect that Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities are a cover for a weapons programme. Iran insists its nuclear programme is limited to peaceful energy uses.
