PARIS - Six world powers made "substantive progress" but failed to reach an
accord on a UN resolution to punish Iran for defying UN demands to halt its
nuclear program, the French Foreign Ministry said after talks in Paris Tuesday.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary and
cheif neuclear negotiator Ali Larijani speaks during the second day of the
Arab Strategy Forum in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. Six world powers meeting
in Paris said they had failed to agree what sanctions to impose over
Iran's refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work, as diplomats said that
Russia was blocking a deal.[AFP]
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Tehran made a new threat of
retaliation if the powers opted for sanctions.
"We made substantive progress on the scope of the sanctions targeting
proliferation-sensitive activities. There remain several outstanding issues,
upon which we will reflect over the coming days," the French ministry said in a
statement. "We are now close to a conclusion of this process."
The talks brought together diplomats from the United States, Britain, China,
France and Russia - the permanent members of the UN Security Council - as
well as Germany and a representative of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The United States and France were hoping the Paris talks would secure
agreement on sanctions against Iran. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
said earlier that imposing wide-ranging sanctions would be "irresponsible."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday to stick by the nuclear
program and issued a new threat to downgrade relations with the 25-nation EU if
European negotiators opted for tough UN sanctions. He gave no details on how
ties might be downgraded. The EU is Iran's biggest trading partner.
The Security Council has been at odds over how to deal with Iran's defiance
of an Aug. 31 UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Western powers accuse Iran
of seeking nuclear bombs, while Tehran insists it only wants nuclear energy.
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