Representatives from six nations seeking a halt to Iran's disputed nuclear program will hold a conference call later Wednesday to discuss new proposals from Tehran, a US State Department official said.
The political directors of the diplomatic branches of the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany planned to hold the conference call "this afternoon," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
But they planned to issue no statement, he said, adding: "This is just an initial go-around."
Earlier Wednesday in Tehran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki handed over Iran's new package of proposals on its controversial nuclear program to the envoys of the six world powers, an AFP photographer said.
Swiss envoy Livia Leu Agosti represented the United States, which has had no diplomatic relations with Iran since the aftermath of the 1979 revolution.
"We're now reviewing it seriously and… carefully," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters after confirming that US officials had received the package of proposals.
"We plan to confer with our… partners in the P5-plus-one group, and I expect that we'll have more to say about it in the… coming days," Kelly said.
He added that the United States hoped Iran would take up President Barack Obama's offer of diplomatic engagement via so-called P5-plus-one, the negotiating group that includes the five permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany.
"We've made it clear to Iran that… the choice really is theirs to make. They have a stark choice. They can continue down this path… of isolation from the international community or they can choose to reintegrate with the… international community," Kelly said.
He said the United States is also looking to see how Iran addresses "these longstanding concerns of the international community about Iran's failure to comply with its Non-Proliferation Treaty, IAEA and Security Council obligations."
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency is the UN nuclear watchdog and is responsible for inspecting Iran's program to enrich uranium, which the United States fears could be used to build an atomic bomb. Iran insists it is for electricity.
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