Roundup: Iran presses EU on reaching nuclear proposal within months

As the negotiators of Iran and the European Union (EU) were bargaining in Geneva, Tehran on Wednesday voiced firmness on its principled stand and pressed the Europeans to accept its nuclear proposal in months, warning of a breaking-off of talks otherwise.

The two sides kicked off a new round of negotiations on Tuesday with the EU's persistent attempt unimpaired to encourage Iran to give up its uranium enrichment, a process used for both electricity generation and possibly bomb building.

Iran was also fixed to its initial position that the suspension of uranium enrichment activities carried out by Tehran on Nov. 22 under great international pressure was "voluntary and temporary." Namely, a resumption of it under Tehran's will is legal and justifiable.

Due to the uncompromising stances of the two sides, the five rounds of negotiations held after Tehran's suspension failed to yield any substantial fruits.

The deadlock racked not only Iran and the EU but also the United States, who just softened its stance to support the Europeans' diplomatic efforts in February.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on April 14 voiced Washington's impatience, hinting that Uncle Sam would wait and see until the summer.

"I don't want to put a timeline on it, but I think we probably want to make an assessment this summer and see where we are and see how far we've gone," Rice told the Wall Street Journal.

Though rejecting the US deadline, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on April 17 that Iran also opposed any prolongation in the talks and was trying to promote a quick conclusion.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani on Wednesday sent a harder message, saying Iran would wait for "a couple of more months and not years" to reach agreement in the nuclear talks.

"If the negotiations between Iran and the Europeans do not lead to a resolution in the next couple of months, we will break them off," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Rowhani also told a Majlis (parliament) session that his assessment on the new round of talks was not negative but Iran would quit negotiations when it felt the EU was not sincere.

Elaborating Tehran's view on a sincere attitude, Rowhani said the EU must recognize Iran's insistence on the continuation of enrichment without causing any concern for the international community.

Rowhani's elaboration echoed a veiled proposal that he presented during his visiting tour to Europe in late February to break the deadlock.

Neither of the two sides revealed any details of the proposal, but it is deducible that the keynote of it should be providing the so-called "objective guarantees" of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activity while continuing uranium enrichment, a non- existent concurrence according to the EU.

Rowhani, when he strongly called for fruits of the talks, was just pressing the Europeans to reach an agreement based on Iran's proposal so that the talks could go on.

"The criteria in the negotiations must be how to reach tangible guarantees so that they reach a firm conclusion," Rowhani said, reiterating that Iran would "not reduce its enrichment capacity."

Source: Xinhua