Iran is ready to restart its negotiations with the European
Union (EU) over its nuclear enrichment program, Iran's Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Putrajaya on Tuesday.
"I would like to announce our readiness to restart immediately
the negotiations with the EU 3 (Britain, France and Germany) to
resolve the issue," Mottaki said.
Mottaki made the remarks at a news conference after the
conclusion of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Coordinating Bureau
(NAM-CoB) Ministerial Meeting in the Malaysian administrative
center of Putrajaya.
Iran will respond to the call of the NAM and will resume
negotiations on its nuclear enrichment program with other parties
"without any preconditions", Mottaki told reporters.
Earlier, the NAM ministerial meeting released a statement,
encouraging Iran to "urgently continue to cooperate actively and
fully with the IAEA" in order to resolve the outstanding issue.
When asked whether Iran will resume direct talks with the United
States, Mottaki attributed to the suspension to latter's "bad
temperament".
"Iran might resume the direct talks over its nuclear program if
Washington changed its behavior," said Mottaki.
Also on Tuesday, US President George W. Bush talked with leaders
of Russia, France and Germany by telephone, Frederik Jones,
spokesman for the National Security Council, said at a
briefing.
Bush made separate calls to Russian President Vladmir Putin,
French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Jones said, without elaborating the contents of the
telephone conversation.
France, Germany and Britain, or the EU-3, have been trying to
work out a package of both incentives and possible penalties to
persuade Iran to agree to suspend its suspected nuclear
programs.
Meanwhile, along with Germany, Britain, China, France, Russia
and the United States -- the five permanent members of the United
Nations Security Council -- have been pressing Teheran to suspend
its nuclear activities.
The Bush administration has said it wants to work with the
international community to make Iran to abandon its nuclear
ambitions.
(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2006)
