Iran rebukes Britain over Brown's Israel speech

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Tuesday rebuked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for issuing an “inaccurate” warning that Tehran risked further sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme.
Brown made the remarks on Monday in a speech to the Israeli parliament, where he also attacked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his “abhorrent” threats against Israel.
“The inaccurate comments of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his recent trip to the occupied lands is in contradiction to the prevailing atmosphere of the (nuclear) negotiations,” the ISNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying.
Meanwhile, The New York Times released on Tuesday what it called a two-page informal document that outlined Tehran’s approach to last week’s nuclear talks in Geneva and was distributed by Iranian negotiators. The paper called for seven more rounds of talks, stressed the need for an end to sanctions, and made no mention of an incentives package offered by six world powers in exchange for a suspension of uranium enrichment by the Islamic republic.
The English language document contained two spelling errors, and was titled “The Modality for Comrehensive (sic) Negotiations (None Paper),” in an apparent reference to the diplomatic term “nonpaper,” as an unofficial negotiating document is commonly called.
“The paper calls for a huge exercise in talking,” the Times quoted an unnamed senior European official as saying. “If you were to try to implement it, it would take a minimum of several years.”