Iran Says Solana Did Not Answer all Atomic Queries

The Scotsman:

Iran said on Sunday that European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was not able to answer all Iran's questions about proposals backed by six world powers that aim to end a nuclear standoff with the West.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also said the Group of Eight countries, which meet in Russia in mid-July, should not take decisions that could harm the current positive atmosphere in efforts to resolve the issue. READ MORE

"Solana cannot answer all of our questions and the ambiguities that we see," Mottaki said.

Six world powers offered Iran a package of incentives to give up uranium enrichment, a process the West believes Iran is using to make atomic bombs despite Iranian denials. But Iran said the package contained "ambiguities" it wanted cleared up.

Iran has said it will reply to the proposals by August 22. The EU has said it expects a "substantial response" at talks on July 11 between Solana and Larijani, before the G8 meet on July 15.

"We think nobody should take steps to affect or make negative the current atmosphere", Mottaki told a news conference after a regional ministerial meeting on Iraq.

"For example, we are not going to attend the next G8 meeting, therefore we believe any kind of decision-making without the presence of Iran in the G8 summit ... could harm the positive process that has been created," he said.