Last update - 00:00 21/10/2006
Iran invites Western delegates for discussions on nuclear issue
By The Associated Press
Iran is inviting Western representatives for discuss Tehran's continued uranium enrichment in the face of international sanctions threats, the Iranian Foreign Minister said Saturday.
"We don't see any logic to suspending uranium enrichment. Enrichment of uranium by Iran is a legal action derived from its membership rights in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.
"But we are ready to hold talks about the reason for enrichment," he said.
A draft United Nations resolution on Iran is expected to be introduced in the Security Council early next week, and diplomats have said they would seek limited sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
Mottaki's comments came a day after French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said her country would be willing to suspend the drive for sanctions if Iran takes steps toward resolving questions over its nuclear program. France has veto power on the Security Council.
"If Iran does show goodwill, France and France's partners are prepared to suspend the procedure in front of the the UN Security Council," Alliot-Marie said. "The only condition is that there are indeed steps forward."
Alliot-Marie said the problem with Iran was that when the prospect of sanctions loomed, Tehran would respond and then retreat again.
"When the sanctions are getting close, there is a diplomatic step forward by Iran and then on the following day or three days later, when we think we're going to get into the talks, once again they step back and they stiffen on behalf of the Iranian government or president," Alliot-Marie said.
Russia, another Security Council member with veto power, also is resistant to sanctions.
"We won't be able to support, and will oppose, any attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or use Iran's program to promote the ideas of regime change there," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA that was posted on the ministry's Web site on Saturday.
Russia is building a nuclear reactor for Iran's Bushehr power plant and is to begin shipping fuel to the plant by March.
On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the UN Security Council and its decisions "illegitimate," saying the world body was being used as a political tool by Iran's enemies - the United States and Britain.
"Dialogue is the best way to reach an understanding ... we recommend the West to return to talks and avoid testing a path they have already tested," Mottaki told a news conference on Saturday. He didn't elaborate.
"The time for language of force is over. The West has tested threats in our region. We invite them to sincerely return to talks," he said.
"We are confident that there is possibility of negotiations as an appropriate solution to reach a comprehensive understanding," Mottaki said at a joint news conference with Belarusian Foreiggn Minister Sergei Martynov.
"Belarus thinks that Iran is entitled to carry out any activity envisaged within the NPT. There is no obstacle for Iran to do so," said Martynov, whose country is adamantly opposed to U.S. foreign policy.