By NNN-FNA,
Tehran : Iran on Wednesday delivered to UN chief Ban Ki-moon a package of proposals aimed at solving global challenges, including the nuclear issue.
The “incentives package” was handed over after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Tehran was ready to talk to world powers about global problems but ruled out any negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear “rights”.
The package contains “seven solutions on the (global) nuclear issue,” the media director of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ahmad Khadem-olmella was quoted by ISNA as saying.
It has also been sent to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the Swiss foreign minister, and will soon be delivered to the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
Iran’s ambassador to the European Union, who handed the proposal to EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, said in Brussels on Wednesday that it had taken “a wider approach, beyond the nuclear issue”.
Aliasghar Khaji said on Tuesday that the proposals contained “the points of view of our country toward the great global difficulties on several political, security, economic and energy levels, and on the question of the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”
Entitled “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Proposed Package for Constructive Negotiations”, the proposal emerged as six big powers were finalizing revisions to a batch of incentives to Iran to give up its right of uranium enrichment, which they plan to present shortly.
Iran’s package called for “establishing enrichment and nuclear fuel production consortiums in different parts of the world, including in Iran,” and better access to peaceful nuclear technology for “all states”, a reference to developing nations. The country billed its plan as an all-encompassing approach to tackling “regional and global problems and challenges”.
Its proposals dwelled on cooperation in fighting “common security threats”, citing terrorism, militarism, narcotics and organized crime; alleviating poverty and inequality; fostering trade and investment; and sharing of energy for development. It said steps should focus on the Middle East, where there should be “a sustainable, democratic and fair” solution for the Palestinians.
In a May 13 cover letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran’s approach was “a strategic one” with “important initiatives” spanning political, security, economic and nuclear fields.
He urged those concerned to “deal with it constructively”. In an allusion to sanctions, Mottaki warned big powers against resorting further “to two-track approaches that combine intimidation and negotiation (which) not only will not help resolve issues but indeed further complicate the situation”.
The United States and its Western allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Iran is under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s illegitimate calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.
Permanent Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany have agreed on a “reviewed and updated” offer made to Iran in 2006, including economic, security and technological rewards.
Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, and says it will only negotiate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed after it answered the UN agency’s questions about the history of its nuclear program.