GENEVA — Iran must take steps to restore confidence that it has peaceful nuclear intentions during crucial talks with six major powers in Geneva on Thursday, a senior US official said Wednesday.
"We want them to come prepared to focus on the nuclear issue and demonstrate that they are willing to take steps to restore the confidence that's been lost in their peaceful intentions," the official told reporters in Geneva.
"And they will have to be a lot more transparent than they've been and a lot more cooperative with the IAEA than they have been in several years," he said, referring to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Last week's revelation that Iran was secretly building a second uranium enrichment site in Qom underscored the "collective sense of urgency and impatience" among the six world powers, said another senior US official.
European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana will conduct Thursday's talks with Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, along with senior officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
The senior US official said the so-called P5+1 group will have to establish during negotiations Thursday "if the Iranians are willing to engage on the nuclear issue."
"Another urgent task for all of us is to support the IAEA in ensuring that Iran lives up to its obligation to full and unfettered access to the Qom site as well as to people and documents connected to that facility," he added.
The official said there must be concrete results from the negotiations.
"This from the point of view of the United States can't be an open-ended process -- talks just for the sake of talks, especially in light of the revelations about Qom," he said.
"We need to see practical steps and measurable results and we need to see them starting quickly," he stressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment