By Xinhua,
Geneva : The high-level talks between six countries and Iran over its controversial nuclear programs have yielded “insufficient” progress on Saturday and diplomats attending the one-day meeting have called for enhanced efforts so as to solve the issue peacefully.
“There is always progress in these talks, but insufficient,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a press conference after talks with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in the presence of U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns and senior diplomats from China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
“We didn’t get the answer to our questions…we hope very much we get the answer and we hope it will be done in a couple of weeks,” he said.
According to the diplomats, Iran has given no clear answer to a package of incentives for suspending its nuclear program, but the country is expected to make a response within two weeks.
Still, Solana appraised the one-day meeting as “constructive,” saying that the diplomats talked frankly about everything, including common points as well as differences on the nuclear issue.
He also expressed the belief that the issue should be solved through cooperation instead of confrontation.
Jalili also described the meeting as constructive, saying it has enhanced the understanding of each other’s views. This is the first time that senior diplomats from the six countries join Solana in direct talks with the Iranians on the nuclear issues.
However, U.S. spokesman Sean McCormack after the talks warned that Iran should either accept the incentives, or face “further isolation.”
“We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all, and confrontation, which can only lead to further isolation,” McCormack said in a statement.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Kisliak, who attended the talks, said he would also expect Iran to respond within two weeks.
“We hope that the two weeks we agreed on with the Iranians will help Iran to specify its stance on our proposals,” he said.
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi, who represented China at the meeting, called for enhanced diplomatic efforts and flexibility so as to find a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.
“Enhanced diplomatic efforts and flexibility are needed for an early resumption of negotiations so that a long-term, comprehensive and appropriate solution could be found for the nuclear issue,” he said.
The package of incentives, presented last month by the five U.N. Security Council permanent members plus Germany, suggests that Iran get a temporary reprieve from economic and financial sanctions in exchange for freezing its enrichment activities.
Preliminary negotiations over a permanent halt could then begin,although the United States would not join them until after Iran agrees to fully suspend uranium enrichment.
According to Jalili, Iran has also presented its own package ofproposals on solving the nuclear issue, and that package contains “a number of opportunities that should not be lost.”
Jalili said Iran’s package and the six countries’ package have many common grounds, and the parties at the meeting had agreed to hold further talks on those common grounds.