TEHRAN -- The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany last month offered Iran a revised package of proposals meant to end the West’s prolonged standoff with the Islamic Republic.

The package, which follows an original proposal in 2006, offers nuclear cooperation and wider trade in exchange for a halt in Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.
Iran has also presented its own package of proposals on ways to resolve international problems including the threat of nuclear proliferation.
Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili last week said Iran has provided a “constructive and creative” response to a letter by the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany with a focus on common points between the two separate packages.
Iran has repeatedly ruled out suspension of enrichment as a precondition for negotiations and has said it will “hold talks only on common points”.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is leading the nuclear talks with Tehran, plans to hold fresh talks with Iran later this month.
The Mehr News Agency on Tuesday conducted an exclusive interview with Solana’s spokeswoman Cristina Gallach.
The following is the text of the interview:
Q: How do you evaluate the efforts made by Iran and the 5+1 to end the West’s nuclear standoff with the Islamic Republic?
A: Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, went to Tehran on June 14 to deliver to the Iranian authorities, on behalf of the international community, an updated proposal aimed at preparing the ground for negotiations with Iran. This is a generous proposal, designed to resolve the concerns between the international community and Iran on the subject of Iran’s nuclear program, and to open the way to cooperation with Iran in a number of areas, including the political area, the economic area, and energy. Iran has now made a written response to this offer.
Q: How do you evaluate Iran’s response to the letter?
A: On Friday, July 4, Mr. Solana received a telephone call from Mr. Jalili and had a good and constructive conversation with him. A letter was delivered to Mr. Solana’s office by the Iranian Ambassador in Brussels on Friday evening July 4. This letter was addressed to the seven signatories of the letter from the international community to the Iranian authorities (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and Mr. Solana himself).
This reply from the Iranian authorities is now being studied by the six countries and Mr. Solana. It needs to be analyzed carefully. We are looking at the possibility of a meeting between Mr. Solana and Mr. Jalili before the end of July, as Mr. Jalili suggested.
Q: Why the U.S. did not send a representative with Mr. Solana to Tehran? Do you agree that it could help resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program?
A: The U.S. is one of the six countries that made the proposal to Iran. The letter presented by Mr. Solana (on June 14 to Tehran) was signed by the foreign ministers of all six countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This indicates clearly that the interest of the U.S., as part of the international community, is to resolve the concerns of the international community and to hold serious and real negotiations with Iran.
Q: How do you see the prospect for Iran’s nuclear issue and what is the best solution to the nuclear dispute?
A: We take Iran’s nuclear issue very seriously. We believe that the only way to resolve it is through a diplomatic solution. For the negotiations to begin, we need to have confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program, with objective guarantees of this. We want to have a fully normalized relationship with Iran taking its place as a respected member of the international community