Iran will not discuss its nuclear program at talks with global powers, an adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, adding fresh doubt to the chances of a negotiated end to its stand-off with the West.
Iran said on Friday it was ready to resume talks which stalled more than a year ago and led to tightened sanctions against the Islamic Republic which many countries fear is seeking nuclear weapons, something it denies.
Both sides have said the talks could happen after November 10, but Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a media adviser to the president, said they would not cover the nuclear issue – the one subject the other countries want to address.
“We will not be talking with the Western party about the nuclear energy issue in this round of the negotiations,” Javanfekr said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
The P5+1 group – the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. plus Germany – want Iran to suspend uranium enrichment which can have both civilian and military uses, in exchange for trade and diplomatic benefits on offer since 2006.
Javanfekr said the P5+1 countries had yet to address Ahmadinejad’s conditions for resuming talks. He did not say what the talks would cover if they do not address the nuclear issue.
In a television interview on Saturday night, Ahmadinejad reiterated his position that the other parties should say whether they come to the table as Iran’s friends. “From the very beginning we told them that they have no option but negotiating with Iran. But it should be based on justice,” he said on state-run TV. “(We ask) on the basis of what framework are you going to negotiate? Is it based on justice and respect? But they do not dare announce it yet.”
Ahmadinejad said talks could happen even if Iran was not satisfied with the responses, but that: “We will negotiate one way with friends, another way with enemies.” He did not specify whether that meant Iran would enter negotiations but refuse to address the nuclear issue.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast remained optimistic that the talks — which EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton proposed holding in Vienna from November 15 to 17 — would still happen. “The contacts and consultations are under way and we are hopeful we will reach agreement over the details for the talks including the time, place and the content of the negotiation,” he was quoted as saying by Fars.
source: Reuters
Iran’s commerce minister on Saturday denied that international sanctions imposed on the country over its disputed nuclear program have damaged Tehran’s trade ties and said the penalties will prove futile.
Iran is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions as well as other penalties by the United States and the European Union over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment – a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or an atomic bomb. The U.S. and other Western powers accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Commerce Minister Mahdi Ghazanfari called the sanctions “ineffective,” and said they “have not affected our trade with other countries so far.” He said that if the sanctions were really having an impact, then the U.N. would not have had to impose four sets of them.
Ghanzafari’s comments come after the president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Nahavandian, said last week that the international penalties have begun to take a toll on the economy, pushing up the cost of living.
“Sanctions can’t halt the importation of goods into Iran but estimates indicate that the cost of imports has increased between 15 to 30 percent,” Nahavandian was quoted as saying by the semiofficial ISNA news agency.
In order to get around the sanctions, analysts say Iran has increasingly used front companies based abroad to import technology that may have civilian and military uses. But Iran is finding it increasingly difficult to continue this cat and mouse game because of strict banking restrictions and tighter rules that ban the export of any dual use or technological equipment that could wind up in Iran’s hands.
Also Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran’s foreign currency reserves exceed $100 billion, despite sanctions.
“The country’s foreign exchange reserves have been estimated at $100 billion, but it’s definitely more than this figure,” Ahmadinejad said in a statement posted on his office’s website.
In the past, the president has refused to provide even a rough figure for the reserves, saying the information should remain confidential amid stiffer international sanctions.
The head of Iran’s central bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, said Tehran has boosted its reserves by buying hundreds of tons of gold at a price that has since doubled, according to the state news agency IRNA.
The sanctions target Iran’s nuclear and missile program, and there is no official report on how they have affected Tehran’s nuclear program.
Experts believe the international penalties have hampered Iran’s nuclear progress, citing a smaller number of operating centrifuges at Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant in Natanz compared to a year ago.
The number of operating centrifuges at the underground facility in May was 3,936 compared to around 5,000 last year, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
source: AP
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