 Iran nuclear talks should resume Jan 20Brussels (AFP) Jan 7, 2011 - Talks between world powers and Iran on its controversial nuclear programme should resume January 20 in Istanbul, an aide to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Friday. "It's a tentative date we're looking at... We have positive feedback from Iran," Ashton's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told AFP, adding that the talks were expected to last one and half days. Later in the day, however, Iran's Fars news agency ran an unsourced story saying the talks would resume on "Bahman 1 and 2," the Iranian calendar dates corresponding to January 21 and 22. It was not immediately possible to get official comment on that report. A previous round of talks between Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- spearheaded by Ashton, took place in Geneva on December 6-7. That round followed a 14-month hiatus in the talks on Iran's nuclear enrichment programme, which Tehran insists is peaceful but the US and its allies believe is aimed at developing an atom bomb. The US State Department said it looked forward to the next round of talks and "would like to see a meaningful negotiations process emerge," without specifying dates. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the United States and its partners were committed to "pragmatic efforts" to resolve the dispute. "But we are equally committed to holding Iran accountable to its international obligations and will continue to focus on this." Tehran this week invited the EU to tour its nuclear sites, along with other nations. But Brussels said it was up to UN inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to carry out the visits. Iran's foreign ministry this week said invitations to visit the nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak had been sent to ambassadors of some of the nations represented in the IAEA. Diplomatic sources at the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog said invites went out to Russia, China, Egypt and Cuba as well as to Hungary, as rotating EU president since January 1. An EU official said Wednesday the bloc had not answered the letter and reiterated that the IAEA "are the people who have to inspect the Iranian nuclear facilities." IAEA sources said Britain, France, Germany and the United States were not on the list of countries invited to see the sites. A senior Iranian official said in Damascus on Monday that the January talks could resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme. "We think (the negotiations), in line with the agenda decided in Geneva, could clear the way to resolving problems," said Ali Bagheri, deputy to Said Jalili, Iran's nuclear negotiator. Iran's nuclear programme has grown under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attracting four rounds of UN sanctions and other unilateral punitive measures from various countries, including the United States. Ahmadinejad said in December that the Geneva talks were "very good", adding "it is time that they (world powers) change the policy of confrontation to engagement." Analysts and diplomats said they failed to dissipate distrust between world powers and Iran but marked the beginning of a new phase of dialogue. |
"We have built an advanced manufacturing unit in the Isfahan site for the fuel plates," Salehi, who is also acting foreign minister, told Fars news agency in what was said to be an exclusive interview.
"A grand transformation has taken place in the production of (nuclear) plates and rods. With the completion of the unit in Isfahan, we are one of the few countries which can produce fuel rods and fuel plates."
Salehi said that Western policies had spurred on the Islamic republic to reach its current level of atomic technology, including the production of nuclear plates and rods.
It was "because of West's actions that we came to this point," he said.
"What we say is based on reality and truth. There is no exaggeration or deception in our work. It is them who do not want to believe that Iran has no intention but to obtain nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."
The West led by the United States suspects that Iran's nuclear programme masks a weapons drive, a charge Tehran vehemently denies.
On November 23, Salehi had told state news agency IRNA that Iran would produce the nuclear fuel required for a research reactor in Tehran by September 2011.
"By the month of Shahrivar next year (September 2011), we will produce fuel for the reactor," said Salehi, who is also one of Iran's vice presidents.
Western powers have repeatedly said Iran does not possess the technology to make the actual nuclear fuel plates required to power the Tehran research reactor which makes medical isotopes.
In February 2010, Iran started refining uranium to 20 percent with the purpose of using it to make the plates that could power the reactor.
That came amid a deadlock with world powers over a nuclear fuel swap deal drafted by the UN atomic watchdog and aimed at providing fuel for the research unit.
Salehi told Fars Iran has now produced nearly 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of uranium enriched to the 20-percent level, despite Western calls for Tehran to suspend the work.
"We have nearly 40 kilograms of 20-percent enriched uranium," he said in the interview.
The Islamic republic is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, the process at the centre of fears about Iran's atomic work.
Enriched uranium can be used as fuel to power nuclear reactors as well as to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.
Salehi's latest declaration comes ahead of the next round of talks in Istanbul between Iran and the six world powers over Tehran's nuclear programme.
On Friday, an aide to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the talks could resume from January 20.
"It's a tentative date we're looking at... We have positive feedback from Iran," Ashton's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told AFP, adding the talks were expected to last one and half days.
A previous round of talks between Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- spearheaded by Ashton, took place in Geneva on December 6-7.
That round followed a 14-month hiatus in the talks on Iran's nuclear programme.
Salehi said meanwhile that work on Iran's second uranium enrichment plant at Fordo, in the country's southwest, was progressing.
"Fortunately, the work at Fordo is progressing well," he said without giving any details, while adding the country's nuclear programme was "running on an agenda based on a detailed industrial plan" put into action in the past two years.
The construction of the Fordo plant has infuriated the West and Iran was censored last year by the UN atomic watchdog over the issue.
Iran's main uranium enrichment activities are undertaken in the central city of Natanz.
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