Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday said that current opposition to Iran's peaceful nuclear activities have been "calculated," and hoped that the US will not repeat what it has been through in the past. According to IRNA, he said that the illegal and improper means being pursued by the United Nations Security Council and other bodies to solve the problem will get nowhere.
Mottaki added that the era of threats has long ended and American officials should set aside their outdated strategies. "Transparent and straightforward negotiation is the most appropriate way to solve any issue that Western officials may be faced with," he said.
In response to a question whether the place and time of the meeting between Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana had already been fixed, he said that these will be decided by the two officials who are in constant contact with each other.
The minister underlined that the upcoming negotiations between Larijani and Solana are welcome, and said that once the time and place of the meeting are fixed, the agenda of talks will be revealed to the public.
Mottaki refused to comment when asked whether temporary suspension of enrichment is on the agenda of Iran's talks with the so called 5+1 Group.
Replying to another question regarding remarks of US President George W Bush that as a hardliner Iran should not access nuclear technology and whether this makes Iran-US talks impossible, he said: "The countries possessing nuclear arsenals are not authorized to speak about the right of other countries to nuclear technology."
"Of course Bush's remarks mean that some countries are entitled to access nuclear weapons, but others do not even have the right to use nuclear energy," he said.
