The world’s six major powers held talks with Iran in Moscow on June 18 and 19. The following are comments from key parties to the talks.
Six Major Powers
European Union foreign policy chief Lady Catherine Ashton
We set out our respective positions in what were detailed, tough and frank exchanges. After give plenary sessions and several bilateral meetings we have begun to tackle critical issues. However, it remains clear that there are significant gaps between the substance of the two positions. We have therefore agreed as follow:
- An early follow-on technical-level meeting in Istanbul on 3 July to provide further clarification about the E3+3 proposal; increase the E3+3 understanding of the Iranian response; and study the issues raised by Iran during the sessions;
- This will be followed by contact at the deputy-level between Ms. Schmid and Dr. Bagheri;
- I will then be directly in touch with Dr. Jalili about prospects for a future meeting at the political level.
The choice is Iran’s. We expect Iran to decide whether it is willing to make diplomacy work, to focus on reaching agreement on concrete confidence-building steps, and to address the concerns of the international community.
EU Foreign Policy spokesman Michael Mann
“Sanctions policy by definition is always under review, but can only be eased in response to real changes on the ground, so there is no question that our sanctions will come into force on the first of July.”
United States
U.S. briefer to press in Moscow
“We are not going to get trapped in a process that we do not think is a productive one...All of our sanctions will go into effect on July 1, and there will be further sanctions to come, so our dual-track policy is not changing. Because we are in negotiations, the second track, the pressure track, is not stopping because in fact they haven't taken any concrete action."
Statement by President Obama and Russian President Putin at the G-20 summit
"We agree that Iran must undertake serious efforts aimed at restoring international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program."
United States Senator, Mark Kirk (R., Ill.)
"After three rounds of meetings, Iran remains in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions ordering it to halt all its uranium enrichment activities."
Iran
Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili
"In this round of negotiations, the discussions were more direct, more serious and more realistic…We are hopeful that the [next] technical meeting ... can reach acceptable conclusions and give proposals so that Ms Ashton and I can reach a decision regarding the time and place for the next negotiations."
Ali Bagheri, deputy Iran negotiator
"We elaborated in detail ... the illegality of referring Iran's nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council and issuance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
"Our enemies should know that arrogance and un-substantiated demands from Iran will lead to nowhere."
Europeans
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
"We regret that Iran has still not made the concrete gestures that we were waiting for and that could constitute a first step towards respecting UN Security Council and IAEA resolutions…Sanctions will continue to be strengthened as long as Iran refuses serious negotiations."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
“We regret that Iran was not prepared to negotiate seriously on specific concerns of the international community - in particular regarding 20 percent enrichment. This is a missed opportunity to address the serious concerns of the international community…This is a missed opportunity to address the serious concerns of the international community."