World powers seek ‘negotiated solution’ with Iran

The United States and five other world powers are seeking an “early negotiated solution” to the nuclear stand-off with Iran, according to a copy of a draft statement obtained yesterday by AFP.

The draft was due to be finalised when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met her counterparts from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany yesterday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Iran has signalled a new willingness to engage the international community over its nuclear programme but has so far failed to meet the terms for talks and its defiance triggered a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions in June.

But the draft statement, if adopted, amounted to a fresh diplomatic overture.

“We reaffirmed our determination and commitment to seek an early negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and focused our discussion on further practical steps to achieve it at an early date,” the draft said.

The draft said the six powers are “ready to engage with Iran” in the context of implementing a nuclear fuel swap deal that was agreed in Geneva in October last year, adding they looked forward to an “early meeting” with Iran.

Under the deal, Iran would ship most of its low-grade uranium to France and Russia so that it could be enriched to higher levels and returned to Iran to fuel a medical research reactor in Teheran.

The deal had been designed to buy time and build confidence while the world community waits for Iran to meet its demand to halt uranium enrichment, a programme western powers fear masks a drive for a nuclear bomb.

But the deal stalled as Iran sought to modify its terms.

In June, the UN Security Council then approved a fourth round of sanctions against the Islamic republic, which in turn said it would suspend talks until September.

The draft also said the chief diplomats discussed the new sanctions.

The United States, which spearheaded the drive for the sanctions, has long argued that Iran will only return to the negotiating table once it feels them bite.

It says the current sanctions are beginning to hurt Iran, while Teheran insists they have no effect.