TEHRAN: Iran is preparing a new package of “political, security and international” issues to put to the West, its foreign minister said on Saturday. “The package can be a good basis for talks with the West. The package will contain Iran’s stances on political, security and international issues,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that the Group of Eight major powers would give Iran until September to accept negotiations over its nuclear ambitions or face tougher sanctions.
In Iran’s first reaction to Sarkozy’s statement at the G8 summit in Italy, Mottaki said the Islamic republic had not received “any new message” from the summit. “We have not received any new message from the G8. But based on the news we have received, they had different views on different issues which did not lead to a unanimous agreement in some areas,” Mottaki said.
Britain’s Foreign Office said it could not comment on Mottaki’s remarks as the package was still being prepared. The White House had no immediate comment.
US President Barack Obama warned Iran on Friday that the world would not wait indefinitely for it to end its nuclear defiance, saying Tehran had until September to comply or else face consequences. In a separate statement, the G8 said it was committed to finding a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear program. Iran on Saturday played down G8 concerns about its crackdown on protests after the June presidential election.
In a separate development, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday Iran will execute 12 members of a Sunni rebel group, including one of its senior militants, by the end of this week.
Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of Abdolmalik Rigi who heads the shadowy group Jundallah will be hanged along with 11 others, the agency said quoting Hojateslam Ebrahim Hamidi, head of the judiciary in the southeast province of Sistan-Balochestan.
“They will be hanged by the end of the week,” said Hamidi, adding that the 12 have all been accused of being “mohareb” - enemies of God. Iran’s state-run English language television station Press TV quoted Rigi as saying that his brother Abdolmalik was on the payroll of the American military.
