Eurasia Press & News
A senior Iranian national security official here on Wednesday stressed that Tehran will not study any plan entailing suspension of its uranium enrichment activities. “Iran does not accept any kind of suspension,” Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Undersecretary Rahmani Fazli told reporters when asked to comment on the recent statements made by the EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana that Iran has shown implied inclination for the resumption of talks with the West at the expense of suspension of its uranium enrichment activities.
Saying that the date and venue of the upcoming Larijani-Solana talks are yet to be specified, he continued, “These talks (between Iran’s Larijani and EU’s Solana) could serve as a prelude to further negotiations between the two sides.”
Asked to comment on the Swiss proposal, the official said, “As regards this plan, we interpreted the world ‘timeout’ as a kind of suspension, and when a plan talks about suspension, Iran does not study it.”
Meantime, he expressed his country’s readiness to study other provisions of the plan except for the issue of suspension.
Regarding direct talks between Iran and the US, the SNSC undersecretary said, “We have always announced readiness to attend talks with the US if such talks focus on Iraq’s question and center on the stability and security of that country as well as the interests of the Iraqi people and if Iraqis demand Iran’s participation in such a meeting.”
Responding to the question if recent elections in France have resulted in a change of that country’s policy in the face of Iran, he said, “We have not felt any change. They still speak in the form of the Group 5+1.”
