Iran diplomacy 'going well'
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is conducting negotiations with Iran
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Friday, 15, Sep 2006 07:20
Ongoing diplomacy between western nations and Iran over the Middle Eastern country's refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme is progressing well, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been quoted as saying.
Mr Solana's last met with Iran's nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, on Sunday but lower level talks have continued every day since about the west's concern that Iran is independently developing atomic technology because it wants to acquire a nuclear military capability.
Western nations have continued to pursue diplomatic means of resolving the crisis in Iran despite clear reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that, far from ceasing its uranium enrichment programme, Iran has stepped up its efforts.
On August 31st, the deadline for the suspension of Iran's nuclear programme, president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad instead delivered a fierce speech defending his country's right to independently develop nuclear technology, which he insisted was for exclusively peaceful, energy-related use only.
Instead of immediately implementing punitive sanctions against Iran, western nations commenced negotiations led by Mr Solana, who today said that negotiations were "really making progress".
Mr Solana was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that "I don't have a sense of losing patience", explaining that Iranian domestic "consensus" over the issues of prestige involved in the confrontation had to be resolved.
"Never before have we had the level of engagement, and a level of discussion of issues which are difficult as we are having now," the Associated Press news agency reported Mr Solana as saying.
Mr Solana hopes Iran will accept a series of incentives offered by the west, part of a carrot and stick programme of diplomacy endorsed by six nations including the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.