By DPA,
Washington : The five key members of the UN Security Council and Germany were meeting Friday in Washington to discuss Iran’s failure to cooperate with UN demands that it dismantle its nuclear programme.
The talks could include discussion of another possible set of resolutions against Iran, said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The meeting comes just days before next week’s UN General Assembly debate among heads of state, when US Jewish organisations were planning a major rally Monday against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outside the UN.
Ahmadinejad plans to attend the debate, as he did last year.
The talks on the nuclear crisis in Washington included officials from China, Russia, France, Britain and the US – the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council – plus Germany, the so-called P5-plus-1.
“I would not point you to any expectations of any breakthroughs or outcomes,” McCormack said. “This is really a discussion intended to talk about where the various parties in the P5-plus-1 are, regarding timing and substance of a next Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran.”
The US, France, Britain and Germany met beforehand in the course of the morning in Washington to discuss not only Iran, but also Kosovo and Georgia, McCormack said.
The meetings in Washington laid the basis for a possible P5-plus-1 meeting at the ministerial level next week during the General Assembly, McCormack said.
“The context for this is that all the members of the P5-plus-1 had previously agreed, if Iran does not meet its international obligations, comply with Security Council resolutions, cooperate with the IAEA, then they’re headed for a new Security Council resolution,” McCormack said.
Earlier Friday, the European Union threw its diplomatic weight behind the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, saying that it was gravely concerned by Iran’s refusal to cooperate with IAEA inspectors of its nuclear programme.
The EU “deplores” the fact that Iran has refused to suspend nuclear activities and shares the “grave concern” of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei that Iran “is not answering questions relating to possible activities linked to the design and building of nuclear weapons,” a statement on behalf of the 27-member bloc said.