Annan urges quick Iranian response to nuclear offer

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has urged Iran’s foreign minister to speed up Tehran’s response to a package of incentives from world powers to roll back its nuclear enrichment programme.

Iran received the proposals on June 6 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the government will not respond officially until at least mid-August.

Europe is pressing for a quicker reply and US ambassador John Bolton said the US wanted a response before tomorrow’s pre-summit meeting in Moscow of foreign ministers of the seven major industrialised nations and Russia.

Annan met Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki last night for the second time in less than a week to discuss the nuclear negotiations, aimed at ensuring the international community that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are peaceful and not aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

Mottaki refused to talk to reporters after the meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes, but UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the secretary-general “reiterated his suggestion that Iran should speed up its response to the proposals” put forward by the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

Just before he met the Iranian minister, Annan told reporters that after their meeting last Thursday in Geneva he came away with the impression that the Iranians would not give their answer before the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg from July 15-17. Tomorrow’s foreign ministers meeting in Moscow is being held to prepare for the summit.

“I didn’t go as far as to say mid-August,” Annan said, “and I hope it is still possible for them to give an answer before mid-August, but I will pursue that with the minister.”

Bolton said US president George Bush’s position remained “weeks not months”.

“We think Iran owes us a response right now, basically,” he said.

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Konstantin Dolgov said he had no indication of the timing of Iran’s response.

“We were expecting, and we hope that there will be a positive reaction to the package submitted by the six,” Dolgov said. “Discussions are continuing and the Iranians told all of us that they are considering it squarely, very closely. So we hope that hopefully that there could be some meetings fairly soon on the issue.”

The package seeks to persuade Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, rather than halt it permanently, in return for incentives, including an offer by the US to provide Iran with peaceful nuclear technology, lift some sanctions, and join direct negotiations with Tehran.

It contains an implicit threat of UN sanctions if Iran rejects the package.

Annan said he also planned to discuss the situation in the broader Middle East with Mottaki.

“I think they are an important player in the region,” he said. “They know and understand what is going on there, and they are a player, and I would want to discuss the whole region with them.”

Dujarric said Annan exchanged views with Mottaki on Iraq in light of the meeting Iran is convening for regional partners in Tehran early next month.

They also discussed collaboration between Iran and Afghanistan in areas such as border security and efforts to combat drug trafficking, Dujarric said.