Mottaki Downplays G8 “Concerns” about Iran Voiced by Obama

Source: almanar.com.lb, 11-07-2009

US President Barack Obama said Friday the international community is "not going to just wait indefinitely" for Iran to renounce an interest in developing "nuclear weapons." Speaking as the G-8 summit concluded in Italy, Obama stressed that he and others were not looking for their summit partners to embrace sanctions at this week's meeting. Instead, he said that "what we wanted was exactly what we got," a statement of condemnation about Iran's actions in the wake of its presidential election.

Obama said G-8 leaders voiced their concern about what he calls the "appalling" events surrounding the recent elections. The leaders assembled at L'Aquila also addressed "the threat of nuclear proliferation in Iran", he said, with a "strong statement" calling on Iran to fulfill its responsibilities without delay. "This notion that we were trying to get sanctions or that this was a forum where we could get sanctions was not accurate," the US president said.

"I think the real story here was consensus in that (G-8) statement, including Russia, which doesn't make statements like that lightly," he said. "Now the other story there was the agreement that we will reevaluate Iran's posture towards negotiating the cessation of a nuclear weapons policy." "We'll evaluate that at the G-20 meeting in September," Obama said. "I think that what that does is, it provides a time frame. The international community has said, 'Here's a door you can walk through that allows you to lessen tensions and more fully join the international community.' "

"If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G-8 to begin with and, I think, potentially a lot of other countries ...," he said. "We're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclear weapon ... and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse situation and unable to act." Obama said his hope is that the Iranian leadership "will recognize that world opinion is clear."

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki downplayed G8 remarks about the Iranian presidential elections. He told reporters at a news conference the "there has been no new message from the G8 which wrapped up its meeting last night."

Mottaki said: "They (world leaders) had different views and in some cases they did not reach an overall agreement... we are going to present our package which will be a basis to negotiate all regional and international issues."

Iran has said it is formulating a new package which will be presented to world powers to solve various contentious issues, including its sensitive nuclear plans. "If there is a new message we will act on it accordingly," Mottaki said.