TEHRAN, Sept 3: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday reaffirmed support for a UN resolution on Lebanon and his determination to negotiate an end to Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West.
Annan has been touring the Middle East seeking to shore up the ceasefire that halted a 34-day war in Lebanon between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerillas.
U.N. Resolution 1701 drew up the terms for the ceasefire, including expanding an existing U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon and calling for an arms embargo on Hizbollah.
After meeting Ahmadinejad, Annan said the Iranian president “reaffirmed his country’s support for the implementation of Resolution 1701 and agrees with me that we should do everything to strengthen the territorial integrity of Lebanon.”
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking at the joint news conference, also said Iran was ready “to cooperate with the United Nations in resuming peace in Lebanon and on its borders.”
“On the nuclear issue, the president reaffirmed to me Iran’s preparedness and determination to negotiate and find a solution to the crisis, but not to freeze uranium enrichment,” Annan told a news conference in Tehran.
UN officials said Annan had also requested to meet Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the highest authority under the Islamic Republic’s system of clerical rule. Khamenei has also said Iran would press ahead with its atomic plans.
UN officials said early on Sunday that no meeting with Khamenei had been scheduled so Annan was expected to leave Iran later on Sunday without seeing him.
UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi earlier told Reuters Annan had raised the issue of the arms embargo with Mottaki when they met on Saturday but he did not give details of the response.
Fawzi also said Ahmadinejad had told Annan in telephone talks prior to his visit that Iran had reservations about some articles of the resolution but would still cooperate in its implementation. He did not say what those reservations were.
