One man wants a time out with respect to the Iranian nuclear crisis:
The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency is calling for a “timeout” on the Iranian nuclear issue, with Iran suspending uranium enrichment and the international community suspending sanctions over a programme that Tehran says is for producing energy but which others maintain is for making nuclear weapons.
A key to resolving the issue is a direct engagement between Iran and the United States similar to that with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei stressed in several interviews over the weekend in Davos, Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum.
“I call on all parties to take a simultaneous timeout. Iran should take a timeout from its enrichment activity, the international community a timeout from the application of sanctions, and parties should go immediately to the negotiating table,” he said. “The right track is dialogue, negotiation.”
And one man doesn’t:
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The United States rejected a proposal by the UN nuclear chief to call “timeout” in the Iranian nuclear crisis, saying the UN resolutions already being applied were not up for renegotiation.
“There is a path laid out for suspension and that is Iranian suspension of their enrichment activities to be responded to by the Council. So that is very clear and it’s not subject to reinterpretation,” the US representative to the United Nations, Alejandro Wolff, said.
Need I say more?
