September 19, 2006 in Nation/World

Chirac offers deal to help Iran talks

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Chirac
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PARIS – President Jacques Chirac proposed a compromise Monday to kick-start talks between Iran and the international community, suggesting the threat of U.N. sanctions be suspended in exchange for Tehran halting its uranium enrichment program.

“I don’t believe in a solution without dialogue,” Chirac said in an interview with Europe-1 radio. He suggested the international community suspend the threat of U.N. sanctions and that Iran, in turn, suspend enrichment while the two sides talk.

“I am not pessimistic,” Chirac said. “I think that Iran is a great nation, an old culture, an old civilization, and that we can find solutions through dialogue.”

Upbeat about the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, Chirac said in the wide-ranging radio interview that he was pessimistic about the outcomes in Iraq and Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region.

Chirac spoke before leaving for New York to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly, which opens today. Asked about Iran, the French president noted that “Iran for years developed a clandestine nuclear program.” However, “I am never favorable to sanctions” and, should they be unavoidable, they should be “moderate and adapted,” he said.

In Vienna, Iranian Vice President Reza Aghazadeh said his country was “ready for negotiations and political compromise.” However, he coupled that with a warning that “any hostile action by the U.N. Security Council would lead to limitation of cooperation” with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA’s inspectors are trying to determine whether Tehran is using its nuclear program to make weapons, as the United States and other countries fear. Iran assures it is for civilian use.

At an IAEA conference, where Aghazadeh spoke, nations called on Iran to freeze enrichment in accordance with a Security Council demand. The U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution providing for possible economic and diplomatic sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Chirac suggested Iran and the six nations involved in the issue – France, Germany, Britain, Russia, China and the United States – set an agenda for talks, then move ahead, with both sides removing the burden of threats.

“We must, on the one hand, together, Iran and the six countries, meet and set an agenda, then start negotiations. Then, during these negotiations, I suggest that the six renounce referring (Iran to) the U.N. Security Council and that Iran renounce uranium enrichment during negotiations,” Chirac said.

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