RUSSIA: Leading industrial nations yesterday called for Iran to reply by next week to a UN plan to curb its nuclear programme.
Foreign ministers from the G8 met in Moscow amid frustration that Iran has signalled it will make no decision on its nuclear future before August 22nd. The ministers said they expected an answer by next Wednesday, when EU foreign minister Javier Solana meets Iran's nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.
"We are disappointed in the absence of an official Iranian response to this positive proposal," the ministers said in a statement. The G8 - which includes Russia, the United States, Britain, France, and Germany - is concerned Iran is dragging its feet over a final decision.
Under the UN plan put forward earlier this month, Iran would get economic and technical help in exchange for giving up plans to enrich uranium. This enrichment process gives it the option of making nuclear weapons, something Iran insists it will not do.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said there would be no response until August 22nd, but the foreign ministers want a decision ahead of the full G8 summit in Russia on July 15th.
Earlier this week, Tehran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appeared to rule out jettisoning the enrichment programme, saying: "We will not negotiate with anybody our certain right to reach and use nuclear technology." Ali Khamenei's insistence that he would accept unspecified "international controls" is being seen as a conciliatory gesture, although the United States is unlikely to accept a deal that leaves Iran free to pursue enrichment.
But diplomats here concede that Tehran is unlikely to foreclose on the option of building an atomic bomb until it sees the strength of feeling against it.
Since negotiations began in earnest last March, outside nations have been unable to present a united front concerning what punishments Iran will face if it goes ahead with enrichment. The United States says military action cannot be ruled out, while China and Russia have urged that Iran be given more time.
Moscow, which is building Iran's nuclear reactor, says a plan rejected earlier this year for enrichment to be carried out in Russia rather than Iran remains on the table. Russia says that the scheme will give Iran the fuel it needs, but deny it the chance to begin a weapons programme.
Ministers met in Moscow in a conciliatory mood, with few signs of the divisions over energy and human rights that have emerged in recent months.
The G8 ministers called for North Korea to return to peace talks involving South Korea. And there was unity over calls for Palestinians to release an Israeli soldier kidnapped earlier this week.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice repeated criticism that Russia has failed to adhere to democratic standards: "It's no secret that the United States and others have concerns about how the transition is going in Russia."