WORLD
World powers fail to reach Iran accord
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-12-06 08:45
PARIS - Six world powers made "substantive progress" but failed to reach
an accord on a UN resolution to punish Iran for defying UN demands to
halt its nuclear program, the French Foreign Ministry said after talks in
Paris Tuesday.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary and cheif neuclear
negotiator Ali Larijani speaks during the second day of the Arab Strategy
Forum in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. Six world powers meeting in Paris
said they had failed to agree what sanctions to impose over Iran's
refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work, as diplomats said that Russia was
blocking a deal.[AFP]
Tehran made a new threat of retaliation if the powers opted for sanctions.
"We made substantive progress on the scope of the sanctions targeting
proliferation-sensitive activities. There remain several outstanding
issues, upon which we will reflect over the coming days," the French
ministry said in a statement. "We are now close to a conclusion of this
process."
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The talks brought together diplomats from the United States, Britain,
China, France and Russia - the permanent members of the UN Security
Council - as well as Germany and a representative of EU foreign policy
chief Javier Solana.
The United States and France were hoping the Paris talks would secure
agreement on sanctions against Iran. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov said earlier that imposing wide-ranging sanctions would be
"irresponsible."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday to stick by the
nuclear program and issued a new threat to downgrade relations with the
25-nation EU if European negotiators opted for tough UN sanctions. He
gave no details on how ties might be downgraded. The EU is Iran's biggest
trading partner.
The Security Council has been at odds over how to deal with Iran's
defiance of an Aug. 31 UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Western
powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear bombs, while Tehran insists it only
wants nuclear energy.
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