Posted on 06/25/2006 1:36:59 AM PDT by Michael81Dus
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany made clear to Iran on Saturday it must halt uranium enrichment if it wants to negotiate with six world powers on an offer of incentives aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff with the Islamic republic.
Iran said that any talks must be "without pre-conditions," suggesting little movement in the two sides' positions.
"I can only reiterate and urge Iran to implement very quickly a suspension of enrichment to enable negotiations to begin again," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki. Mottaki, however, appeared to reject any demand that Iran temporarily stop enrichment -- a process of purifying uranium for use in nuclear power plants or weapons. "We welcome negotiations without pre-conditions," he said.
Germany and other Western countries suspect that Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons. Tehran says it only wants to harness nuclear technology for peaceful ends. The six sponsors of the offer of economic and political benefits are Germany along with U.N. Security Council permanent members France, Britain, the United States, Russia and China. In exchange for an enrichment suspension, the Security Council powers have agreed to halt work on a resolution that would open the door to political and economic sanctions.
Mottaki described his talks with Steinmeier as constructive but reiterated that the incentives offer had some ambiguities. "The packaged offer by the six countries is being very seriously examined by Iran. We see very positive points in this offer. There are also naturally unclear points and we will have questions," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Actually, the Germans should feel flattered. The Iranians aparently learned a lot from them.
Unnngh.. that sounds familiar, replace 'Iran' with 'IRA', and there you have it!
Halt, or I'll yell halt again!
U.S. to Iran: Stop enrichment and we'll allow you to breath (a little while longer)
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