US President Barack Obama issued a strong warning to Iran yesterday of consequences of its failure to respond to the offer of a nuclear deal and could have a package of steps to take “within weeks.”
Iran’s foreign minister, however, rejected talk of further sanctions, saying the West had learned from “failed experiences” of the past.
Iran on Wednesday rejected a deal to send enriched uranium abroad for further processing, defying Washington and its allies, which had called on Tehran to accept a deal aimed at delaying Iran’s potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had said Iran should send 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
“Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say ‘yes’ to this proposal ... and so as a consequence we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences,” Obama said at a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during a visit to Seoul.
He said Iran would not be given an unlimited amount of time, likening the Iranian nuclear issue to the years of stop-and-start negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear ambitions.
“We weren’t going to duplicate what has happened with North Korea, in which talks just continue forever without any actual resolution to the issue,” said Obama, who has advocated a policy of increased engagement, rather than confrontation, on thorny international issues.
In Manila, visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dismissed the possibility of further sanctions.
“Sanction was the literature of the 60s and 70s,” he said at a news conference. “I think they are wise enough not to repeat failed experiences,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “Of course it’s totally up to them.”
Mottaki said Tehran was willing to discuss the plutonium deal, but only if the swap of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel took place within Iran.
“Iran raises its readiness in order to have further talks within the framework which is presented,” he said.
“It’s not our proposal to have a swap,” he said. “They raised such a proposal and we described and talked about how it could be operationalized.”
Obama said he still hoped Iran would change its mind and that the US and its allies would consider a package of potential steps to indicate to Iran their seriousness.
“Our expectation is that, over the next several weeks, we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take, that would indicate our seriousness to Iran,” he said.
Meanwhile, the French Foreign Ministry yesterday rejected Iran’s request for more talks to
explore the technical details of a plan to provide fuel for its
reactors.
Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said dialogue could
continue on Tehran’s nuclear program, but “it will
not touch on the technical issues.
Also See: 9/11 plotter will be convicted: Obama
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS