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Meeting of political directors from six countries on Iran's nuclear program

Foreign ministry political directors from the five UNSC permanent members, and Germany (plus the EU political director) met in Frankfurt on September 2 to discuss the situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear program. Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergey Ryabkov represented Russia.

A Joint Statement to the Press was approved at the conclusion of the meeting, stating in part that the political directors have reaffirmed our political goal and underlined the necessity to achieve results on the diplomatic track. We stressed that a negotiated solution is still open to Iran. Its right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was stressed. It was stated that Iran should be aware of the urgent need to restore confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program through full cooperation with the international community.

I might add that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's report on Iran, which appeared on August 28, and a further scheme of action against Tehran at the negotiating track, were touched upon during the meeting.

The IAEA confirms that it is verifying everything declared by Iran, and says it has detected no signs of a military component in Iran's nuclear program. At the same time Teheran has agreed to apply a number of additional IAEA-requested transparency measures at its nuclear facilities.

The other day Iran announced its readiness for a substantive discussion with the Six and that it is going to submit its own proposals for cooperation. If these statements are followed by concrete steps, then in the foreseeable future, we believe, it will be possible to start full-blown negotiations to find a comprehensive settlement of the situation.

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