Region | Iran
Bush shifts tack on Iran
Iran on Thursday said that it hoped weekend talks aimed at defusing the long-running standoff over its nuclear drive would produce "positive developments" and voiced satisfaction at US involvement.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:06 July 18, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- The presence of an American delegate in Geneva will help the United States be informed directly, says Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Damascus: Iran on Thursday said that it hoped weekend talks aimed at defusing the long-running standoff over its nuclear drive would produce "positive developments" and voiced satisfaction at US involvement.
"The presence of an American delegate in Geneva will help the United States be informed directly," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a visit to Syria. "We hope that the meeting in Geneva on Saturday will produce positive developments on the ground," he said at a news conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mua'alem.
In a major policy shift by Washington, US Undersecretary of State William Burns will attend the talks between Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to discuss a package of incentives offered by world powers to Tehran.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday the decision to break with past policy and send a top US diplomat to talks with an Iranian envoy shows that the world is united in trying to eliminate threats from Iran's nuclear programme.
"The point that we're making is the United States is firmly behind this diplomacy, firmly behind and unified with our allies and hopefully the Iranians will take that message," Rice told reporters at the State Department.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the US presence would be "an additional asset" and that Iran's readiness for more talks was encouraging. But Tehran was still not addressing "the core of the subject" - an enrichment suspension, or an interim freeze on steps to expand the proliferation-prone activity, he said.
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Officials say Burns will be listening, not negotiating, at the meeting, but his presence signals a significant change in President George W. Bush's approach toward Iran.
With the support of Rice, Burns has been championing a proposal to open a de facto US Embassy in Tehran similar to its interests section in Cuba and send American diplomats to Iran for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Britain's Guardian reported on Wednesday that the US will announce its plans for the embassy next month. Though the White House declined comment, a State Department official acknowledged last month that US officials have discussed the possibility of opening an interests section in Tehran.
Mottaki said Iran was studying the plan, adding that "the request of the United States has been made via the media in a non-official fashion. The opening of an American interests office is the object of a study and an examination in Iran," he said.
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