Iran seeks “serious talks” as it replies to UN nuclear offer

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – Iran announced that it sought “serious talks” with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany over its nuclear standoff with the West. Iran Focus

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Tehran, Iran, Aug. 22 – Iran announced that it sought “serious talks” with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany over its nuclear standoff with the West.

The announcement came by the secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani in a meeting with the ambassadors of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and Switzerland which was representing the United States.

During the meeting, Larijani provided Tehran’s answer to a package of incentives offered to it in June by the P5+1 in return for it to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, the state-run news agency ISNA reported.

“Although there was no justification for the other side’s illegal [referral of Iran’s case”> to the Security Council, on the recommendation of the UN secretary general Kofi Annan, we prepared with a positive view the answer to the proposed package. We even tried to pave the way for fair negotiations on many of the issues where doubts existed, through logical and positive interpretation”, Larijani said.

“The Islamic Republic is prepared to hold serious talks from August 23”, he said.

“As a responsible member of the international community, the Islamic Republic is prepared to play a constructive role” on the issues raised in the package, he added.

Separately, in an interview with ISNA, the head of the Majlis (Parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Ala’eddin Boroujerdi urged the European Union, China, and Russia to ignore “illogical U.S. political pressures” in dealing with Tehran’s nuclear dossier.

The Security Council adopted a legally-binding resolution on July 31 ordering Tehran to freeze all its uranium enrichment activities by August 31 or face possible sanctions.

Ali Akbar Velayati, the former Iranian Foreign Minister and current international affairs adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told ISNA, “The UN and its resolutions do not have the least amount of credibility in the world. The decisions by the Security Council do not mean that the state of Iran’s nuclear file has become unsuitable”.