Reading audio
Cairo
11 July 2009
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is saying, Saturday, that
Tehran is preparing to present a "new package" of proposals concerning
international, political and security issues to the West for talks, soon.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad also indicated that a "package"
was being prepared, several months ago.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
alluded, Saturday, to Tehran's yet-to-come, but apparently imminent,
new "package of proposals."
He says that Iran is preparing a package on various political, security, economic and international
issues and he says Iran considers this package a good basis for talks
over different issues that the region and the world is struggling with
today.
During a press conference, with visiting Omani Foreign
Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdallah, Mottaki insisted that Iran had
not received anything new from the just-concluded Group of Eight summit
in Italy.
He says that Iran has not received any new messages.
The summit ended Friday, he adds, and according to the news, the
G8 participants had mixed views on different issues and could not
reach an overall agreement on some of these issues.
U.S.
President Barack Obama warned Iran, Friday, that the world was giving
Tehran until September to comply with United Nations resolutions over
its controversial nuclear program. Mottaki's remarks appeared to
discount the importance of the President's warning.
French
President Nicholas Sarkozy also told Iran, Wednesday, that the Group of
Eight would allow Tehran a brief respite, until September, to
negotiate, or face more sanctions.
Iranian President Ahmedinejad
first spoke of presenting a new package of proposals to the West during
the presidential election campaign in May.
The five permanent
members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, known as the Group
of five-plus-one presented Iran with a package of incentives to stop
enriching uranium, but Tehran has pointedly refused to accept any deal.
Iran
analyst Mehrdad Khonsari of the London-based Center for Arab and
Iranian Studies says that he thinks Tehran's package of proposals will
be aimed at changing the nature of the discussion that the West is
hoping to have with Tehran.
"The strategy which the Iranian
government has been pursuing was not to suggest that they are not
interested in holding talks regarding the nuclear file, but to come up
with their own suggestions to try to change the agenda of the
discussions," he said. "What they are going to be proposing will, in
essence, have nothing to do with what the five-plus-one want to discuss at this
time and that will be used as a vehicle for trying to delay substantial
talk regarding the nuclear file."
The G8 leaders told Iran,
Friday, that it must not obtain nuclear weapons, despite repeated
claims by Tehran that its nuclear program is intended solely for
civilian purposes. The G8 summit also expressed "serious concern" over
violence in the wake of Iran's controversial June 12 presidential
election.
Category