Iran says will only talk to IAEA on atomic file

TEHRAN—Iran said on Wednesday it would only discuss its nuclear program with the U.N. atomic watchdog, rejecting a call by world powers to hold more talks with the EU’s foreign policy chief.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments, carried on state media, were his first since the U.N. Security Council voted on Monday for a third round of sanctions because Iran has refused to halt work the West fears is aimed at making nuclear weapons.
Tehran insists its plans are peaceful and has long called for its nuclear file to be returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency, instead of being handled by the Security Council.
A statement by world powers on Monday said the group wanted European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to meet Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, to try to reopen talks with an offer of incentives for Iran to halt its work.
“From now on our nuclear issue is with the agency only and we will not negotiate with anyone outside the agency about Iran’s nuclear issue,” the president was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
In remarks carried by Iran’s ISNA news agency, Ahmadinejad said: “It is not acceptable to us that some people outside the agency would want to negotiate about Iran’s nuclear issue.”
A senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named, said the president was ruling out discussions with Solana on this basis. “This carrot and stick policy does not work with us. So they should review their policy,” the official said. “We are in a new chapter, a new time for talks without limitations or preconditions,” the official said, adding Iran was ready to discuss issues such as energy, regional security, trade relations or nuclear power plants which Iran wants.
Ahmadinejad said the latest sanctions resolution, which followed two previous ones in December 2006 and March 2007, “lacks legal credibility,” IRNA reported. Solana has been leading talks with Iran on behalf of the five permanent Security Council members — the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia — plus Germany in a bid to try to end the standoff.
Britain’s envoy, John Sawers, reading out the statement to the Council by the six powers, said they were willing to beef up the incentives offer Solana delivered to Tehran in 2006 if Iran suspended uranium enrichment but did not elaborate.
The enrichment process is the part of Iran’s program that most worries the West because it can be used for making power plant fuel or, potentially, material for weapons.
When Solana met Jalili in January, Solana’s spokeswoman had said the meeting had been designed to keep a channel of communication open. Solana has held several rounds of meetings with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator without any breakthrough.
The resolution imposed more travel and financial curbs on Iranian individuals and companies, expanded a ban on trade in items with both civilian and military uses, and called for increased vigilance over Iranian financial institutions. Iran has dismissed the impact of two previous rounds of sanctions, saying it has a cushion of crude revenues thanks to windfall earnings as the world’s fourth largest oil producer.
Iran will not hold new talks on its nuclear programme after the imposition of fresh sanctions by the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told on Wednesday.
“Negotiations and contradictory actions afterwards are not appropriate. Therefore we believe that for any request for negotiations, first the objectives should be set up,” Mottaki said.
Mottaki slammed the Security Council resolution, which tightened existing sanctions to try to force Iran to give up its programme of uranium enrichment and cooperate further with the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA).
Russia and China both supported the resolution, in a change from their usual reticence on the issue. “We believe that the action taken by the Security Council has been a bullet shot towards the dignity of the Security Council,” Mottaki said.
He also insisted that the tightened sanctions will have no impact on Iran’s economy. “I want to assure that those who think that the sanctions cause problems for the Islamic Republic... are definitely wrong,” the foreign minister said.—Agencies