WORLD / Middle East
Six major powers to seek unity on Iran
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-05-08 17:24
The foreign ministers of six major powers will meet here in a bid to map
out a common strategy to force Iran to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work
that could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host her counterparts from
Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well as European Union
foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, at a working dinner that will focus
on Tehran's rejection of repeated UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.
The meeting will coincide with continuing bargaining in the 15-member UN
Security Council on a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally
require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
It comes as an Iranian government spokesman said President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad had written a letter to US President George W. Bush to
"propose new ways" to resolve tensions.
"President Ahmadinejad has written a letter to George Bush, which is to
be handed to the Swiss embassy," Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters in
Tehran.
It is the first time an Iranian president has been known to officially
communicate with an American president since Washington and Tehran cut
off diplomatic relations in 1980.
"In this letter, while analysing the world situation and finding the
roots of the problems, he has proposed new ways for getting out of the
existing vulnerable world situation," the spokesman said.
French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
issued a joint call for a tough UN stance Sunday, saying the Security
Council must adopt "a resolution making obligatory the requests of the
IAEA ( International Atomic Energy Agency), notably the suspension of
uranium enrichment," according to the French president's office.
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters Saturday that the
ministers would "talk about the longer-term policy that we need to pursue
to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability" at Monday's
meeting.
Western powers suspect Iran is using its civilian atomic program as a
cover to develop nuclear weapons. But Iran insists its aims are peaceful
and claims it has the right to pursue uranium enrichment as a signatory
to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
While insisting that it wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff with
Tehran, Washington has not ruled out military action to prevent Iran from
acquiring nuclear weapons.
Moscow and Beijing object to the draft's reference to Chapter Seven of
the UN charter and its suggestion that the Iranian nuclear program
constitutes a threat to international peace and security.
Chapter Seven can authorize economic sanctions or military action as a
last resort.
The proposed draft would oblige Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, the
process creating fuel for nuclear reactors and -- potentially -- the core
of an atomic bomb. It warns, in case of Iranian non-compliance, of
unspecified "further measures" requiring another resolution.
The document needs at least nine votes and no veto from any of the
council's permanent members to succeed.
But Iran shows no sign of backing down.
"The involvement of the Security Council will direct the path of
cooperation towards confrontation," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman
Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday, warning that the Security Council would not
be able to enforce its demands.
And Russia and China say the nuclear standoff can only be resolved
diplomatically, with the IAEA leading the process.
In an interview with the German television channel ARD broadcast Sunday,
US President George W. Bush said the standoff must be resolved
"diplomatically," adding that there must be "a common front with a common
strategy" to achieve the objective.
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