July 20, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 16, 1429

GENEVA, July 19: Iran’s top negotiator for nuclear issues ruled out on Saturday discussion of freezing uranium enrichment at any subsequent round of talks with major powers.

Asked by Reuters if Tehran would consider a demand to freeze enrichment as a precondition for full negotiations on

its nuclear programme, Saeed Jalili said: “We will only discuss common points of the package.”

World powers, which have offered Iran a new package of incentives to resolve the nuclear dispute, have suggested that Tehran must freeze any expansion of its nuclear programme in return for the UN Security Council halting further sanctions measures.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after meeting Jalili that Iran gave no clear answer to the offer, but that he hoped for a fuller response in two weeks’ time.

But a senior Iranian diplomat at the Geneva talks said: “Of course we will not discuss freeze-for-freeze topic in the next meeting with Solana. First we would like to discuss the common points and if an agreement is reached then we can discuss our differences.”

“The freeze-for-freeze issue cannot be accepted because this (enrichment) is our right and we will never abandon our nuclear right,” he added.

“We have not got a clear answer... We didn’t get an answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and we hope that it will be given soon,” Solana told a news conference.

But a Western diplomat at the talks said no further high-level meetings had been scheduled. “This is the last meeting at this level,” the diplomat said.

—Reuters