Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mackellar for her question and for her interest. I know a number of members of the House are very interested in the issue of Iran, as was witnessed by the debate about the rights of the Baha’i people in Iran. I recall, for example, the speech by the member for Stirling very passionately in support of the Baha’i people.

The government has been engaged in efforts in the broader international community to persuade Iran to comply with its international obligations through United Nations resolutions concerning its nuclear activities. I noticed yesterday, Washington time but overnight, that the Secretary of State of the United States, Condoleezza Rice, supported by the President himself, has announced that, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will join with the three European Union countries—France, Germany and the United Kingdom—in direct talks with Iran. This constitutes a very significant change in American policy in dealing with Iran. It is a change that we think is constructive, and it underscores the United States’s commitment, which is shared by us, to try to find a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran’s nuclear program.

Australia would urge Iran to use the opportunity that is now being presented by the United States to seriously consider a comprehensive package of initiatives and, in exchange for that package of initiatives, to reinstate a full and verifiable suspension on all enrichment and reprocessing activities and to comply fully with resolutions of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Security Council.

Iran has an opportunity now, and it is a historic opportunity, to engage productively with the international community and to follow the guidelines laid down by multilateral United Nations institutions. Iran can choose that path and be rewarded by constructive and full engagement with the rest of the world—including with the United States, with which Iran has had no diplomatic relations since the 1970s—or Iran can turn its back on this offer. If it does so, Iran will be isolated and there is always the prospect that, either through the United Nations Security Council or on a bilateral basis, a series of sanctions, including financial sanctions, could be imposed on Iran.

So we would urge Iran to take very seriously the offer that has been made by the United States administration, to embrace the offer that has been made by the Americans, to ensure that they fall into line with the mainstream of the international community and to suspend their enrichment and reprocessing programs so that negotiations of a constructive nature can take place.

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