Iran Seeks Peaceful Resolution To Nuclear Issue, Khatemi Says
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TOKYO — A former president of Iran, Mohammad Khatemi, told Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan that Iran seeks a peaceful resolution to the dispute over its nuclear program, an official at Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Mr. Khatemi said neither the European Union-led offer of incentives nor Iran’s response were ideal, the official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters on condition of anonymity. The American and French governments said yesterday that Iran’s response on August 22 to the offer of economic benefits in exchange for curtailing its nuclear program falls short of the requirement of a uranium-enrichment halt.
Iran’s insistence during the past year on stepping up that program, along with its support for the Lebanese group Hezbollah in a war with Israel, have been cited by America as reasons the U.N. Security Council should impose economic sanctions.
Mr. Khatemi said negotiations are needed to solve the problem and he hopes Japan will convey Iran’s wishes to America and the European Union, according to the official.
Mr. Koizumi told Mr. Khatemi he hopes Iran takes a course that meets the expectations of international society, the official said. Mr. Khatemi, a reformist who was president from 1997 until last year, met Mr. Koizumi in Tokyo yesterday.
America and several E.U. nations suspect Iran’s uranium enrichment is aimed at building a nuclear weapon in contravention of the Nonproliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory. Iran says the fuel is needed to produce nuclear power.
The Islamic Republic on August 22 said it is ready to hold “serious negotiations”on its nuclear program, a day after the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, vowed he wouldn’t bow to U.N. demands to curtail any military effort.
Iran’s Supreme Security Council, in a one-page faxed statement on its response to a European Union-led offer of incentives, didn’t mention whether the country will stop enriching uranium to allay concerns it is trying to build a bomb. Halting enrichment is the main condition in the E.U. plan.
