West still using carrot and stick policy

An Iranian lawmaker says the world’s major powers still pursue the carrot and stick policy regarding the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

“The P5+1 — China, France, Russia, the UK and the US plus Germany — do not have a strategy [to adopt on] Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, and I believe they still pursue the carrot and stick policy,” member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said on Sunday.

Falahatpisheh added that even though Iran clarified all outstanding issues raised by the P5+1 about it’s nuclear program, the group had still not entered negotiations, Mehr News Agency reported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised six issues concerning Iran’s nuclear program which included Plutonium Experiments, P1-P2 Centrifuges, Source of Contamination in an equipment of a technical university, Uranium Metal Document, Polonium 210 and Gachine Mine.

In 2007, Iran resolved all outstanding issues and removed any ambiguity concerning the nature of its peaceful nuclear activities in the past and present.

Falahatpisheh said that after the issuance of resolutions against Iran, the West expected Iran to surrender and call for negotiations, “but when they saw Tehran’s resistance, they asked for talks themselves.”

The Iranian lawmaker added that if Western countries are serious about negotiations they should put their former approach aside.

On Thursday, Catherine Ashton proposed three-day talks over Tehran’s nuclear program in mid-November in the Austrian capital of Vienna, expressing hope that Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili would “respond positively” to the offer.

“[Ashton] looks forward to constructively engaging with Iran next month,” her spokesperson said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Friday welcomed Ashton’s offer, saying that from Iran’s perspective and as announced earlier, “October or November… is a good time for the re-establishment of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1.”

“Negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 to reach a final agreement on the date and venue of talks are still ongoing,” ISNA quoted Mottaki as saying on Saturday in Brussels.

Although Iran has announced its readiness to resume talks on its nuclear program, it has also stressed that any negotiations must be conducted within the framework of the Tehran nuclear declaration.

Iran issued a nuclear declaration with Turkey and Brazil based on which Tehran agreed to ship most of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for fuel.

The US and its allies used their influence on the UN Security Council to impose the fourth round of sanctions against Iran over allegations that Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Iran says its nuclear program is totally peaceful and within the framework of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, in its several reports, has also verified the country’s non-diversion from peaceful purposes.