Iran said on Sunday it was ready to hold talks in Turkey with the six world powers on its controversial nuclear programme following a one-year break, turning to a neighbour seen as an ally.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing the world powers in the negotiations, said she was awaiting official word from Tehran on a specific time and venue. A response would follow after consultations with the major powers, her office said in Brussels.
Ashton proposed last month to hold the talks in Vienna – headquarters of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency – starting from November 15.
“In the last two or three days, we informed our Turkish friends that we agree to hold negotiations in Turkey,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.
Iran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili informed Ashton in October that his country was prepared to resume nuclear talks after November 10 at a time and place agreed by both sides.
Turkey gave its approval in principle on Sunday to host the talks, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.
“Turkey has made lots of efforts since the start of the process for a diplomatic solution to be found,” a diplomatic source said, quoted by Anatolia. “We are ready to do whatever is in our power.”
On Sunday, an Iranian conservative newspaper, Vatan Emrouz, without quoting a source, reported that the negotiations would be held by the end of November in Turkey.
The nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers – Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States – have been deadlocked since October 2009 when the two sides met in Geneva. The world powers led by the United States suspect that Iran is masking a weapons drive under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran strongly denies.
source: AFP
The six world powers involved in negotiations with Iran are united on the need to update an offer to send some of Tehran’s uranium overseas for enrichment, France’s foreign ministry said Friday.
“There is no disagreement among the six (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia the United States) on the need to update the offer made to Iran in the autumn of 2009 and there is also no disagreement on the principle and parameters of this update,” the ministry said.
The six nations proposed last year that Iran transfer 1,200 kilos (roughly 2,600 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and then to France for further enrichment for a Tehran research reactor.
Iran has since increased its stock of uranium and the six are now working on an updated offer, according to Paris.
“This is about a mechanical update, because the centrifuges continue to turn. It’s a simple, mathematical question,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said at a press briefing.
The New York Times recently reported the six wanted Iran to transfer 2,000 kilos of its uranium abroad for enrichment and not just 1,200 kilos.
On Thursday, France’s Le Monde newspaper reported that the US would propose that as well as 1,200 kilos for its Tehran reactor, Iran send another 2,000 kilos to Russia for its Russian-built Bushehr reactor.
London and Paris oppose the idea, Le Monde reported, as it risked legitimizing Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.
Paris and Washington have neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the reported proposal linked to Bushehr or the alleged disagreements.
Western nations fear Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, while Tehran insists its program is for purely peaceful purposes.
Various UN resolutions and sanctions have been put in place to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, so far little effect.
source: AFP
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