Patience of six world powers running out

Vietnam News.Net
Saturday 21st November, 2009

The six world powers pressuring Iran over its nuclear program, say their patience is running out.

On Friday they said they were reviewing their two-track approach to Iran, and will meet to discuss broadening sanctions in order to punish Iran.

The six nations have been negotiating with Iran on the basis of providing incentives if it were to agree to their demands, and punitive measures if it did not.

One difficulty the group has is that Russia and China are not completely willing to go down that track.

One proposal put up by the IAEA which initially was welcomed by Tehran was for its stockpile of enriched uranium to be sent overseas for reprocessing. Iran has since been back-pedalling on the idea.

"This is something the Iranians agreed to in principle," Robert Wood, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department told reporters Friday. "If you remember back in the Geneva meeting they agreed in principle to this proposal that was brought about under the auspices of the IAEA. And since then Iran has had a difficult time saying yes to this proposal. So we're hopeful that Iran will, but should it not, we will obviously take a look at the pressure side of our dual-track approach."

The six nations issued a joint statement after their meeting Friday saying, "We urge Iran to reconsider the opportunity offered by this agreement, and to engage seriously with us in dialogue and negotiations."

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