AFP: Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to meet with the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany as well as Russia and China on Monday amid the ongoing crisis over Tehran’s nuclear programme. TEHRAN, May 15, 2006 (AFP) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to meet with the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany as well as Russia and China on Monday amid the ongoing crisis over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Mottaki will receive the three European ambassadors at 1330 GMT and less than two hours later the ambassadors from Russia and China, a foreign ministry statement said.
The Iranian authorities did not elaborate on which party requested the meeting, although the official news agency IRNA said Mottaki would be “elaborating on Iran’s position” in the row.
The meetings will coincide with European Union efforts to put together a package of incentives aimed at convincing Iran to return to a suspension of uranium enrichment work.
Iran says it only wants to enrich to make civilian reactor fuel, but the process can be extended to make nuclear weapons.
Russia and China, as permanent Security Council members, are also resisting EU and United States lobbying to also pass a resolution making a moratorium on enrichment legally binding for Iran.
But Iran has already vowed to ignore any such resolution, and has also repeatedly said it will not halt enrichment work — regardless of the incentives on offer.
