10 July 2006
U.S. Expects Iran's Response to Nuclear Offer Before G8 Summit
White House says United States and Russia beginning talks on civil nuclear cooperation
Washington -- The Bush administration says it expects to receive an answer from Iran to the offer from France, Germany and the United Kingdom concerning its nuclear activities before leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 15-17.
National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said the offer by the three countries, collectively known as the EU-3, allows Iran “broad political, economic and technological benefits in return for practical guarantees that Iran's nuclear program will be solely for peaceful purposes,” and that Iran is expected to respond “[b]y the time the leaders meet later this week in Russia.”
Hadley, speaking to reporters at the White House July 10, said the United States hopes Iran will accept the EU-3 offer, which also has the backing of China and Russia. He said it would “ensure, among other things, that Iran has access to peaceful civilian nuclear power.”
The foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are scheduled to meet in Paris July 13 to evaluate Iran’s response in order to ascertain “whether it is enough to move towards negotiations or whether we need to reopen a process at the Security Council,” he said. (See related article.)
“[W]e are in the position, through that meeting, for the foreign ministers to … make an initial determination,” and then the G8 heads of state “will be in a position to look at the issues later in the week,” he said.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia make up the G8.
Hadley also said Russia and the United States have agreed to initiate negotiations for an agreement to have “substantial civil nuclear energy cooperation,” known as a Section 123 agreement. It would be similar to agreements the United States currently has with countries such as China, Japan, European Union, South Africa and South Korea, he said.
“The agreement would facilitate Russian participation in things like the Global Nuclear Energy Project and the so-called Gen IV initiative to develop the next generation of civil nuclear power reactors,” Hadley said, and the negotiations are expected to “take months to do,” before being ratified by both countries’ legislatures. (See related article.)
He said the agreement could include cooperation in facilitating the storage of spent nuclear fuel in Russia. “It's something that we'll have to talk about, because in order to do that, there would have to be all kinds of technical details and safeguards worked out, and we have not made a decision to do that.”
He said the Bush administration was withdrawing its previous reservations over civilian nuclear cooperation because Russia has adopted “a number of very good proliferation safeguards,” in its building of an Iranian nuclear facility at Bushehr, “including that fuel supplied to the reactor would have to be taken back to Russia.”
Russia’s offer to allow Iran to enrich uranium at a facility in Russia, and other positions were “were helpful and constructive suggestions that put Russia pretty much on the same page with us on Iran and eliminated a major barrier to being able to start these negotiations,” he said.
He said the successful conclusion of the negotiations with Russia “will have to continue to be knit up on Iran,” because “it's such an important issue.”
Hadley said President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to hold discussions in St. Petersburg July 15, in which they will discuss areas of cooperation, as well as differences, including U.S. concerns over “recent trends that raise questions about Russia's commitment to democratic freedoms and institutions.”
He said the United States wants to see “a greater effort by Russians” to build democratic institutions such as a “free and independent judiciary, an independent legislature, modern, democratic, political parties, a free press, [and] a vibrant civil society.” He said those institutions “provide checks and balances on the center, both at the federal level, between the federal and the local level, and between government and the private sector.”
He said President Bush is meeting with Russian civil society leaders in St. Petersburg July 14 to show support for Russian democracy.
“These leaders work every day to promote freedom, democracy and human rights and to improve health by combating infectious disease in Russia,” he said.
In his briefing, Hadley also outlined the president’s schedule in Russia for the G8 Summit, as well as his trip to northeastern Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 12-13.
The transcript of Hadley’s remarks is available on the White House Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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