Six powers and Iran to meet in Geneva

September 23, 2009 04:01:32 PM

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A meeting between the six powers dealing with Tehran's suspect nuclear program and Iran planned for next month will take place in Geneva, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tuesday.

This will be the first such high-level meeting between Iran and the six -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- since US President Barack Obama moved into the White House early this year.

Solana made it clear in New York that the Europeans would not put forward new proposals to coax the Iranians into halting their uranium enrichment program.

"It's freeze for freeze," the EU's top diplomat said, referring to the formula under which Tehran would freeze its uranium enrichment program at current levels in exchange for no further UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Asked to comment on the fact that a package of new Iranian proposals does not deal with the nuclear issue, Solana replied: "The proposals they (the Iranians) put on the table are usually like that".

And he voiced confidence that Wednesday's ministerial meeting of the six powers here on the margins of the UN General Assembly session would yield "a consensual statement."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has meanwhile warned that Iran, which the US and other Western nations fear is secretly developing nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear power program, would face further sanctions if it shies away from talks.

Tehran denies the charge and maintains its package aims to promote global nuclear disarmament.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country hoped to build confidence during talks with world powers on its proposals aimed at allaying concerns over its nuclear program.

"We have to reach a comprehensive confidence in order to examine the main questions and start negotiations," Mottaki told a group of Iranian reporters in New York, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was meanwhile to address the General Assembly Wednesday.

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