CNN: Powers agree on Iran package

[heyholetsgogrant]

Powers agree on Iran package

Thursday, June 1, 2006; Posted: 4:32 p.m. EDT (20:32 GMT)

VIENNA, Austria -- Six world powers meeting to discuss the crisis over Iran's nuclear program agreed Thursday on a "significant" package of incentives to convince Tehran to halt uranium enrichment, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said.

"I am pleased to say we have agreed a set of far reaching proposals," she said. "We believe they offer Iran the chance to reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation."

"If Iran agrees not to engage in negotiations, further steps will have to be taken," Beckett said after a meeting between the foreign ministers from France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia and China. She said that U.N. Security Council action against Iran would be halted if Tehran agrees to stop uranium enrichment.

"We urge Iran to take the positive part but consider seriously our substantial proposals which would bring significant benefits to Iran," Beckett said, adding that they would now approach Tehran with the proposals.

Iran could find itself facing U.N. sanctions if doesn't freeze disputed nuclear activities and accept a U.S. proposal for talks, President Bush said Thursday.

Earlier, Iran rejected multilateral talks with the U.S. and European powers as offering no "new and rational solution" to Tehran's nuclear case, according to Iran's state-run news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran is willing to talk with the United States about its nuclear program but won't stop uranium enrichment, the condition Washington put on starting negotiations.

"We won't negotiate about the Iranian nation's natural nuclear rights, but we are prepared, within a defined, just framework and without any discrimination, to hold a dialogue about common concerns," The Associated Press quoted Mottaki as saying on state-run television.

"The choice is theirs, and we'll see whether or not that is the firm position of their government," Bush said Thursday.

"If that is what they decide to do, then the next step will be, of course, for our coalition partners to go to the United Nations Security Council," Bush said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the United States will join multilateral talks with Iran on its nuclear program once Iran "suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities." (Watch what Rice has to say about Iran's only options -- 3:22)

"Rice remarks had no new words," Mottaki told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). "The remarks were a litany of phrases."

Rice was in Vienna, Austria, to meet with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council on the Iran nuclear issue and to seek support for the U.S. position. (Full story)

The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran cease nuclear enrichment and reprocessing.

Iran rejects any action by the U.N. Security Council as a direct threat.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the foreign ministers in Vienna to "respect our right" to a peaceful nuclear energy program. "If they do not try to prevent Iran to have and to exercise their right, well then, we will see a different horizon," Hamid Reza-Assefi told CNN.

The Security Council has debated a resolution, backed by the United States, Britain and France, that would give the demand the force of international law and open the door to possible sanctions if Iran continues to refuse.

Russia and China, two of the council's veto-wielding permanent members, have said they oppose sanctions.

President Bush said Thursday he spoke to the presidents of China and Russia in a bid to get them to support U.N. sanctions against Iran if it does not suspend its nuclear activities.

"The most positive thing about all the conversations I had is there's uniform agreement that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon," Bush said. "And we'll discuss tactics and strategies to make sure that the international community speaks with one clear voice if the Iranians choose not to verifiably suspend."

Rice, in a speech Wednesday, also said Iran must also resume cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. (Excerpts from Rice's speech)

IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying Rice's remarks fail to provide a "new and rational solution" to the issue.

Though Bush has said he is committed to a diplomatic solution in the standoff with Iran, he "is not going to take any of his options off the table, temporarily or otherwise," Rice said Wednesday in response to a question about whether a military option remains a possibility.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this month sent a letter to Bush, the first direct communication between the leaders of both nations since the Islamic revolution in Tehran in 1979. (Full story)

Though U.S. officials have refused to participate in nuclear talks with Iran in the past, "the United States might be able now to add weight to the negotiating track by joining these discussions," Rice said.

Rice said the United States acknowledges the right of the Iranian people to civil nuclear energy, but said the country's history of violating its commitments and working on a secret nuclear program mean it must now "persuasively demonstrate" that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

Program in early stages

Iran announced in April that it had used an array of 164 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium on a "laboratory scale" in the concentration needed to run a civilian nuclear reactor.

But thousands more centrifuges would be needed to enrich uranium to the concentrations needed to produce a nuclear bomb, experts say.

The Institute for Science and International Security, led by former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright, said Wednesday that Iran plans only to start building 3,000 centrifuges by year's end, a process that would take at least three years.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/01/us.iran/index.html

[heyholetsgogrant]

China and russia will backdown once it reaches the action point,,

-Grant

[herrmag]

Why would Iran give a crap about UN sanctions? Iraq didn't, and look who came to their aid. Hell, Russia and France would probably love for them to be sanctioned so that they could make some cash out of this.

[cjcdaman]

Okay, yes we want them to stop enrichment. But what message does this send to the world that "If you are close to becoming a nuclear power, all you have to do is announce it to the world and you will get incentives." :doh:

[dreamingwolf]

I thought this thread was about No Dongs by the title.

[herrmag]

President Bush said Thursday he spoke to the presidents of China and Russia in a bid to get them to support U.N. sanctions against Iran if it does not suspend its nuclear activities.

"The most positive thing about all the conversations I had is there's uniform agreement that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon," Bush said.

Well slap my ass and call me Susan. Great! They agree that Iran shouldn't have weapons. And to think, they've only been "serious" about this for over six months now. KUDOS MR. President, China, Russia....and hell, France too.( because I just hate them so much). I love it when members of the UN Security Council start patting themselves on the back for agreeing that they need to agree to do something. :doh:

[cjcdaman]

Well slap my ass and call me Susan. Great! They agree that Iran shouldn't have weapons. And to think, they've only been "serious" about this for over six months now. KUDOS MR. President, China, Russia....and hell, France too.( because I just hate them so much). I love it when members of the UN Security Council start patting themselves on the back for agreeing that they need to agree to do something. :doh:

I don't know if you were intentionally trying to be funny with this post. But, this is by far the funniest thing I've ever read.