Annan urges attention to standoff crisis with Iran 
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May 18, 2006
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Original Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/18/news/web.0518annan2.php
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TOKYO The standoff over Iran's nuclear program is a crisis in need of urgent attention by the international community, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday.
 
Annan, speaking at the Japan National Press Club, said only a negotiated settlement would resolve the dispute over Iran's uranium enrichment program.
 
It is a crisis in the sense we need to work very actively, Annan told reporters.
 
The comments by the United Nations leader reflect growing international concern over Iran's nuclear development, which have been fanned by that country's mocking dismissal of a package of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment.
 
In prepared remarks for a separate speech made earlier in the day at Japan's prestigious Tokyo University, Annan said it was his strong hope that the current discussions in the Security Council will give new momentum to the quest for a negotiated solution.
 
There is also a need to lower the temperature, and refrain from actions and rhetoric that could further inflame the situation, Annan said, according to the text. Otherwise, we will see only an increase in global tensions ... and unwelcome delays in resolving the matter.
 
The discussions that Annan referred to, a high-level, six-nation meeting on Iran, however, were postponed Wednesday, reflecting differences between the United States and its allies on one side, and the Chinese and Russians on the other.
 
The London meeting of senior officials from the five permanent Security Council members and Germany was to have been held Friday, but was postponed to next Tuesday at the earliest, diplomats told The Associated Press.
 
The rhetoric has also heightened.
 
Earlier this week, European nations said they might add a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to permanently give up enrichment.
 
But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected that idea on Wednesday, comparing it to offering candy to a child in exchange for gold.
 
A light-water reactor is considered less likely to be misused for nuclear proliferation than a heavy-water facility, which produces plutonium waste. Ahmadinejad spoke at the site of a heavy-water reactor to be built by 2009.
 
In his speech, Annan also called for a negotiated solution to the conflict over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, expressing disappointment that an agreement last September has stalled.
 
He blamed mutual distrust and other factors for the impasse, but called for more negotiations.
 
Still, there is no viable alternative to the six-party talks, Annan said. The international community must do everything possible to move the process forward and resolve the situation peacefully.