By DPA
Tehran : Iran will present a “new idea” to the European Union (EU) for settling the dispute over its nuclear programme, Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said Thursday.
“I will present a new idea in the next talks with (EU foreign policy chief Javier) Solana and hope that this idea will help settling the (nuclear) issue,” Jalili said at a seminar on Iran’s nuclear programme here.
The chief nuclear negotiator, however, refrained from disclosing any details of the new idea.
“That I will tell Solana,” he said.
Jalili has confirmed that his next meeting with Solana would be held Nov 30 in London.
The seminar, also attended by several Asian and European scholars, was another effort by Tehran to reassure the world about the peaceful nature of its nuclear projects.
“Iran’s might is its software and not its hardware. We rely on the power of logic and dialogue,” Jalili said while reiterating that any weapons of mass destruction were rejected by Islam and are not part of the doctrine of the Islamic Republic.
“But as member and signatory, we have fulfilled all our commitments towards the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and therefore it would be quite illegitimate to deprive us of the rights we are legally entitled to,” he added.
Jalili once again rejected international and UN Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
“If we had wanted to make concessions, we would have never made the (1979 Islamic) revolution,” he said.
He mentioned “Iranian goodwill” in the years 2003 to 2005 during which, Jalili said, the country “voluntarily” suspended uranium enrichment but still no breakthrough was achieved with the West over acknowledging Iran’s nuclear rights.
“We are, however, ready to remove all ambiguities through fair negotiations and without pressure and threats but the course towards building confidence, as requested by the West, is not a one-way-road,” Jalili said.
He said the referring of the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council and the UN resolutions so far have not helped settle the dispute and he called for the case to be returned to the IAEA.
He added that the work plan between Iran and the IAEA from last August was agreed upon between Iran and the EU and hence called on the European bloc to respect the outcome of the plan reflected in last week’s IAEA report.
The UN nuclear watchdog last Thursday passed a mixed verdict on Iran, saying the country was generally telling the truth, but was lacking full transparency and being reactive rather than proactive.
Referring to the possibility of a US military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Jalili said the US request to resume talks with Tehran on Iraq’s security was proof enough that the Americans were busy with problems elsewhere for which they even needed Iranian help and therefore could not get involved in another adventure.