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Vienna N-talks worth it: Larijani

Atul Aneja

Dialogue to continue next week

DUBAI: After extending his stay in Vienna by a day, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has held another round of talks with European Union (E.U.) foreign policy representative Javier Solana over Tehran's atomic programme.

Mr. Larijani said "some progress" had been made in the first round of talks held with Mr. Solana on Saturday. "The meeting has been worth it," he said, adding that talks would continue next week.

Discussions are revolving around Iran's reply to an incentive package offer made by the Security Council members and Germany. Iran would be eligible to avail itself of this offer if it halted uranium enrichment. Talks would follow once enrichment is suspended.

Analysts point out that Iran has consistently rejected freezing uranium enrichment as a precondition for talks. As the dialogue in Vienna progressed, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi said in Tehran on Sunday that the enrichment programme would not be frozen. "Iran will not take a step back," he said, adding that Iran "rejected any negotiations with preconditions."

The talks in Vienna are being held amid a raging debate in the Security Council over measures that need to be adopted if Iran does not halt enrichment.

The U.S. has been the chief advocate of imposing sanctions on Iran — a view not shared by Russia and China. Some of Washington's allies, including Germany, France and Italy, have reservations about adopting coercive measures. European officials have been quoted as saying there have been internal discussions about persuading Iran to accept an enrichment freeze, soon after the talks were initiated.

Aware of the resistance that it is encountering, the U.S. on Monday is calling for a telephone conference call with the Security Council members and Germany, said U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. Washington hopes that the six countries would be ready to "complete a sanctions resolution" on September 19, when the General Assembly convenes in New York. The Security Council had earlier urged Iran to freeze enrichment by August 31, fearing that Teheran was developing atomic weapons.

Concerns real: GCC

AFP reports from Manama:

The head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council warned on Sunday that the bloc's concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions were ``real and justified''.

``The countries of the region have suffered from the negative consequences of war for three decades,'' GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman al-Attiya told a Manama conference on the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region.

``The concern of the Gulf countries is real and justified,'' Mr. Attiya said at the opening of the conference.

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