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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| 'Iran's response "Unsatisfactory" – Germany |
| 2006-08-24 |
| Germany said Thursday that Iran's response to a package of incentives for halting its nuclear program appears unsatisfactory because it is missing a reference to whether Tehran will suspend uranium enrichment. "We are still examining it, but from everything that I hear we cannot be satisfied," Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview with N24 television. The Security Council has set an Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to halt enrichment or face the possibility of economic and political sanctions. Merkel said Germany and its partners had hoped for Tehran to say, "'We are suspending our uranium enrichment, we are coming to the negotiating table and we will then talk about the chances and possibilities for Iran." "That unfortunately is not the case," she said. "We will call for this to happen in the coming days, but the decisive sentence is missing in this answer," she added. Tehran says its enrichment, which can produce reactor fuel or fissile material for a bomb, is for purely peaceful purposes. As peaceful as Islam itself, by gosh. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has said Iran must suspend uranium enrichment if it wants to return to negotiations, but Russia's foreign ministry has said it would continue to seek a negotiated solution and China has appealed for patience and more The State Department has acknowledged that Iran considered its proposal to be a serious one and promised to "review it." But a U.S. statement issued Wednesday went on to say that Iran's response to a joint offer of U.S, and European trade and other benefits in exchange for halting the enrichment program "falls short of the conditions set by the Security Council" — full and verifiable suspension of all uranium-enrichment activity. The Iranians' offer, which they portrayed as a major advance, appeared to be aimed at least in part at dividing the Security Council members with vetoes — the U.S., Britain and France on one side and Russia and China on the other. |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #1 So was the schnitzel. So what? |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-08-24 13:37 |