Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear agency says any talks with world powers will not address Iran's controversial nuclear program.
Iranian
media Thursday quote Ali Asghar Soltanieh as saying Iran is prepared to
hold talks on such issues as the peaceful use of nuclear energy and
preventing nuclear arms proliferation. He says Iran will continue
enriching uranium.
Soltanieh made his comments at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
On
Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki handed over a new
Iranian nuclear proposal to representatives of the European Union and
six world powers discussing Iran's nuclear program - the United States,
Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.
Contents of the
proposal were not disclosed, but Iranian state radio said Tehran is
ready to help ease international concerns about its nuclear program.
U.S.
officials said on Wednesday the United States will seriously consider
the Iranian proposal. The State Department reiterated the Obama
administration's readiness for direct engagement with Iran after a
diplomatic break of 30 years, but said the choice is up to the Iranian
government.
The Obama administration has indicated Iran will
face harsher international sanctions, possibly targeting critical
imports of refined petroleum products, if it does not accept good-faith
negotiations by the end of this month.
Also Wednesday, U.S.
envoy Glyn Davies told the International Atomic Energy Agency's board
that Iran may already have accumulated enough enriched uranium to
produce one nuclear weapon.
The U.N. Security Council has
imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium
enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons.
The
United States and its Western allies accuse Iran of working to produce
a nuclear weapon. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful
purposes.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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