P5 + 1 Statement: Negotiations With Iran

[On behalf of the Foreign Ministers of China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union]

(Paris, July 12^th 2006)

On the 1st of June, we met in Vienna and agreed a set of far reaching proposals as a basis for negotiation with Iran, stressing however that, should Iran decide not to engage, further steps would have to be taken in the Security Council. This offer was delivered to Tehran on the 6th of June. It includes offers of cooperation in the political, economic and nuclear areas which would be of significant benefit to Iran.

Today, five weeks later, we reviewed the situation, on the basis of a report by Javier Solana who has met three times with Dr Larijani.

The Iranians have given no indication at all that they are ready to engage seriously on the substance of our proposals. Iran has failed to take the steps needed to allow negotiations to begin, specifically the suspension of all enrichment related and reprocessing activities, as required by the IAEA. We express profound disappointment over this situation.

In this context, we have no choice but to return to the United Nations Security Council and take forward the process that was suspended two months ago.

We have agreed to seek a United Nations Security Council Resolution which would make the IAEA-required suspension mandatory.

Should Iran refuse to comply, then we will work for the adoption of measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

Should Iran implement the decisions of the IAEA and the UN Security Council and enter into negotiations, we would be ready to hold back from further action in the UN Security Council.

We urge Iran once again to respond positively to the substantive proposals we made last month.