By NNN-KUNA,
Washington : The United States has confirmed that a State Department senior official will meet with Iranian nuclear negotiator in Switzerland and noted that this diplomatic engagement is “a one-time deal” for Tehran.
“This is an offer that outlined a very clear set of attractive incentives for the Iranian government to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing related activities,” said State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack in a daily press briefing Wednesday.
Undersecretary for Political Affairs Bill Burns will join EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in his meeting in Geneva on Saturday to hear the response from the Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili to the P-5 plus one offer made about a month ago in Tehran. P-5 plus one are five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany.
“There is no change in the substance, but it sends a strong signal to the Iranian government that the United States is committed to diplomacy, to finding a diplomatic solution to this issue,” said McCormack.
“Should they take that single step, the United States and its partners in the P-5 plus one will meet with the Iranian delegation any time, any place, anywhere to talk about a variety of subjects,” he added.
McCormack said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed to President George W. Bush and his top national security and foreign policy advisors that this is “a smart step to take” while noting that Burns will be “polite but not engage with substantive discussion” during the meeting as in other recent encounters between US and Iranian diplomats.
Iran and US have not been in a diplomatic relations since 1979.
McCormack noted that Burns will make a “strong point” for Jalili, saying “if you want negotiations, you can advise your government to suspend its enrichment-related activities”.
“We believe that the strategy we have put in place with our partners in the P-5 plus one gives the international system the best opportunity to find a diplomatic negotiated outcome to the issue at hand,” McCormack added.