(RIA Novosti) - Iran's foreign ministry said Sunday that a package of proposals from a group of six powers mediating talks on its nuclear program could serve as a good basis for further negotiations.
The ministry's official spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said experts in Tehran were still studying the package of incentives, offered by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany to encourage Iran to halt its uranium enrichment activities, reports Trend. He said it was still too early to reach any conclusions over the Iran-6 initiatives.
Asefi also called on the Group of Eight leaders, now meeting at the Constantine Palace near St. Petersburg for their annual summit, to continue dialogue with Iran over its enrichment program rather than trying to make it abandon its nuclear ambitions through intimidation.
The spokesman said extremism was unacceptable in G8 policies towards Iran, and that Tehran expected the world's richest powers to offer it reasonable recommendations, not threats. If the West takes note of this, the Islamic republic will be willing to resume talks on its nuclear program, the official said.
Asefi's remarks came following the referral of Iran's nuclear file back to the UN Security Council over the country's refusal to respond to the Iran-6 incentives package.
The United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany urged Tehran to accept their offer before the G8 summit, but Iranian authorities said they would not give a definitive response until late August.
The Iranian nuclear program is expected to be high on the G8 summit's agenda. Russia, which is hosting the event for the first time, remains opposed to any punitive measures against Iran. But the United States and other countries are pushing for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that would impose international sanctions on the Islamic republic.