Word: mottaki
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...Mottaki emphatically predicted that neither Israel nor the U.S. would attack Iran, and suggested that the U.S. might be allowed to open a diplomatic interest section in Tehran - perhaps in exchange for permitting direct air links between New York City or Washington and Tehran...
...wide-ranging interview with TIME and other media at Iran's U.N. mission in New York City, Mottaki was highly critical of the U.S., but he suggested that compromise might be reached on the nuclear issue. He called the latest nuclear proposal presented by European diplomats "constructive," adding, "We saw the potential for a new balance." The proposals involve Iran giving up its right to uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of political, economic and security incentives. The European negotiating team led by E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana has also added a "pre-negotiations" phase in which Iran...
...question-and-answer session over lunch, Mottaki said he expected that Tehran would respond to the latest package of nuclear proposals in a "couple of weeks." The package, presented by Solana's team two weeks ago, would begin with the "freeze for freeze" proposal - a six-week period during which the international community would refrain from imposing new sanctions on Iran, in return for Iran agreeing to stop adding new uranium-enriching centrifuges at its facility in Natanz. Unlike in previous proposals that failed to break the deadlock, Iran would not be required, at least during the preliminary talks...
...jitters and driven up oil prices have failed to budge Iran. Iranian officials had said before the latest offer was formally presented that any proposal that required them to end uranium enrichment as a condition for talks was "out of the question." At the New York City luncheon, however, Mottaki declined three opportunities to restate that position and suggested that Iran is weighing its options...
...Mottaki, for his part, dismissed as "psychological warfare" recent speculation of an attack on Iran before the Bush Administration's term ends. Citing both Israel's troubled 2006 invasion of Lebanon and U.S. difficulties in Iraq, he was skeptical that either country is prepared to initiate another conflict. "The consequences of such an attack cannot be predicted," he said, expressing doubt that American public opinion would be "willing to accept another attack...