BEIRUT — For the first time in more than a year, Iran has agreed to talks with world powers over its nuclear power program.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters in Brussels on Friday that she received an affirmative response from Iranian nuclear negotiator Said Jalili to a standing invitation to talks sometime after Nov. 10 “in a place and on a date convenient to both sides,” according to news agencies.
Ashton described the letter as “a significant move”
and said diplomats were now attempting to pinpoint a place and time for
negotiations on ways to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at producing weapons and Iran says is solely for civilian purposes.
Iran’s official
Islamic Republic News Agency cited Jalili’s office as saying it welcomed
the willingness of world powers “to return to the talks with Iran.”
U.S., Russian, Chinese, British, French and German diplomats met with Jalili, a close adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, last October. The world powers offered Tehran a deal to exchange the bulk of Iran’s enriched uranium for fuel plates to power an ailing Tehran medical reactor.
After seeming to agree, the Iranians then rejected
the offer, continued to expand their 3.5 percent-enriched uranium supply
and began refining uranium to purity levels of 20 percent, suitable for
the medical reactor but worrisome to nonproliferation experts
Earlier this year, world powers rejected a deal crafted by Iran, Brazil and Turkey to remove some of Iran’s nuclear fuel supply in exchange for the reactor plates, because Iran in the meantime had significantly expanded its supply of enriched uranium.
In the ensuing weeks, the U.N., the E.U., the U.S., Canada and other developed nations imposed fresh economic sanctions on Iran in an effort to ratchet up the pressure.
Most close observers of the years-long diplomatic struggle over Iran’s nuclear program doubt the meetings next month will resolve the disputes between Tehran and the international community.
Jalili’s response Friday included a reference to a July 6 demand to Ashton that Iran
would engage in talks on the condition that world powers clarify
whether the discussions are aimed at confrontation or engagement,
whether threats and pressure would be avoided and whether a “clear view”
on Israel’s undeclared atomic weapons arsenal would be voiced.
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