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5/7/2010 - Iran, UN Members Meet Over Dinner

Iran's foreign minister invited the U.S. and other members of the United Nations Security Council to dinner Thursday night, his nation's latest high-profile attempt to avert more economic sanctions over its nuclear program.

Western diplomats called it a rare move for a visiting dignitary such as Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to host a dinner for all the council's 15 member nations.

Diplomats in most cases said before the two-hour dinner that they would be sending a senior official, not the top-ranking ambassador. However, many nations did send their top-ranking ambassadors, some notable exceptions being the U.S., Britain, France and Russia.

Japan's UN ambassador, Yukio Takasu, said after the dinner that Mottaki insisted Iran has the right to pursue nuclear energy capabilities for peaceful purposes.

"We had a very frank exchange of ideas," he said. "Iran should pursue more support from the international community. We want Iran to work harder."

The occasion served as one of the highest-ranking contacts in recent years between the U.S. and Iran, which lack formal relations.

A spokesman for Iran's UN mission, M. Bak Sahraei, told the Associated Press the dinner was being called "on the sidelines of (the) NPT review conference in New York."

A monthlong conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is under way at the United Nations.

The U.S. has argued that another round of sanctions is necessary to stop Iran's nuclear program, which it contends is aimed at producing a bomb.

Source, Detroit Free Press