International Herald Tribune, BRUSSELS – Iran on Wednesday postponed a key meeting with the European Union about Tehran’s nuclear activities, eliciting impatience from Javier Solana, the Union’s foreign policy chief, and drawing a sharp warning from the United States.
EU officials said the Iranians had delayed the talks by 24 hours apparently due to anger over the activities of Iranian opposition groups within the Union. The leader of a prominent Iranian exile organization visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
International Herald Tribune, BRUSSELS – Iran on Wednesday postponed a key meeting with the European Union about Tehran’s nuclear activities, eliciting impatience from Javier Solana, the Union’s foreign policy chief, and drawing a sharp warning from the United States.
EU officials said the Iranians had delayed the talks by 24 hours apparently due to anger over the activities of Iranian opposition groups within the Union. The leader of a prominent Iranian exile organization visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
Solana, who was informed Tuesday night that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, was postponing the scheduled talks, said he had been surprised by the decision.
"I had made it clear to the Iranians and to Dr. Larijani that we want to proceed rapidly to examine together the ideas I put to him early last month," Solana said in a statement. He was referring to a package of incentives proposed by six major powers to convince Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program.
The United States wants an answer from Iran by next Wednesday, three days before the Group of 8 summit meeting in St. Petersburg, said the White House spokesman, Tony Snow.
"If indeed Iran is trying to stall, it’s not going to work," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday. "The international community has said that we need to get an answer, an indication of where Iran is going with this. We need to know if the path of negotiation is open or not."
Larijani first sought to postpone the talks by a week, but has now agreed to meet Solana for an informal dinner discussion on Thursday and official talks in Brussels next Tuesday, said Cristina Gallach, Solana’s spokeswoman.
But Iran has said it will not issue a formal reply to the international package until Aug. 22. On Monday, Larijani was quoted as saying that Iran did not see suspension of uranium enrichment as "a reasonable proposition."
The six nations that offered the incentives – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – have demanded that Iran give a clear and substantive response to Solana.
"What we need, and need quickly, is a concrete signal from Tehran that gives us an indication whether Iran is willing to accept our cooperation offer," Germany’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Martin Jaeger, said Wednesday.
The proposals, which were submitted almost a month ago, offer Tehran direct talks with the United States for the first time since 1979 and state-of-the-art reactor technology in return for a suspension of all nuclear activities that could also be of use in a weapons program.
Gallach said the appearance in Strasbourg on Wednesday of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, appeared to have played a role in Tehran’s decision to postpone Larijani’s meeting with Solana. Iran views the council as a terrorist group.
Gallach noted, however, that Rajavi had been invited by several European lawmakers at their initiative, adding, "It was not an institutional invitation and therefore could not be a reason to postpone the talks altogether to next week."