AFP, Brussels, 13 October 2010 — European Union Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton has received no written response from Tehran to offers to resume talks on its nuclear programme, her spokeswoman said Wednesday.
“We offered to meet them at different levels, last time in New York (on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly), and our readiness to meet them is still there,” Maja Kocijancik told AFP.
“We haven’t received anything in writing in response to our offers in the last weeks,” she added.
Tehran this week blamed Ashton for the stalemate in talks, urging her to be “more active” in pursuing the dialogue.
“Basically, it seems that the volume of Ms. Ashton’s activity is lower,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
Ashton represents the six world powers — the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany — in negotiations with Iran.
Mehmanparast directly blamed her for the stalemate. “If she is really eager for negotiations, she should be more active,” he insisted, adding that her predecessor Javier Solana was “more active.”
“We have announced our readiness for negotiations. But the other side … is not really following up, or is not serious” about resuming the dialogue, he said.
Dialogue between Iran and the six powers has been stalled since October 2009, when the two groups last met in Geneva.
The negotiations aim to address international suspicions that Iran is seeking to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran vehemently denies.
Last Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran considered late October or early November an appropriate time for a resumption of the talks but a spokesman for Ashton said no date had been set.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had declared a unilateral ban on talks until the middle of September after the Islamic republic was hit with new sanctions by UN Security Council on June 9.
White House: Ahamdinejad visit exposes Hezbollah values
AFP,  Washington, Oct 13, 2010  – The White House said on Wednesday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad’s ’provocative’ visit to Beirut proved that Hezbollah cared more about Iran than the people of Lebanon.
Ahamdinejad earlier got a hero’s welcome in Lebanon and on Thursday he planned to travel to a spot just a few miles from the Israeli border, a visit that has caused concern in Israel, due to his history of anti-Jewish rhetoric.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Ahamdinejad’s visit showed that the Iranian president continued his ’provocative ways’ even as he led his country into more economic distress and turmoil under nuclear sanctions.
’I think that it also suggests that Hezbollah values its allegiance to Iran over its allegiance to Lebanon,’ said Gibbs.
Ahamdinejad was showered with rice and rose petals by tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters who lined the streets and waved Iranian flags as his motorcade made its way from Beirut airport to the presidential palace.
The two-day trip is seen as a key boost for the Shiite militant group Hezbollah but has prompted criticism by members of Lebanon’s pro-Western parliamentary majority who see it as a bid to portray the country as ’an Iranian base on the Mediterranean.’
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier denounced any effort by the Iranian president to undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty.
’We reject any efforts to destabilize or inflame tensions within Lebanon,’ Clinton said in Kosovo.
’We would hope that no visitor would do anything or say anything that would give cause to greater tension or instability in that country.’