Brazil hopeful about new round of Iran nuclear talks

TEHRAN,Jan.5(MNA) – It may again be possible to revive talks over Iran’s nuclear program, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said in an interview with the Istanbul-based Hurriyet Daily News on Thursday. Iran has agreed to hold talks with six major powers over its nuclear program in January, but the date and venue is yet to be decided. The latest round of high-level talks between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) was held in Moscow on June 18 and 19. Patriota also said he thinks that the May 2010 deal over Iran’s nuclear program was a missed opportunity. “The attempt (in 2010), I think, was one of genuine good faith to adopt a confidence-building measure that would represent a step forward in dealing with a very challenging issue. What we’ve seen since May 2010 is that other strategies have not produced better results, namely the unilateral sanctions or the other threats that have been directed against Iran,” he said. On the sidelines of the Group of 15 summit, which was held in Tehran on May 17, 2010, Iran, Turkey, and Brazil issued a declaration, according to which Iran was to ship 1200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be exchanged for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel to power the Tehran research reactor. But the United States and its allies rejected the deal, which Iran had offered as a goodwill gesture, and imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran in June 2010. Elsewhere in his remarks, Patriota said he had been hearing many voices saying that new talks with Iran might be possible to bring diplomacy back to the scene in 2013. “In fact, one of the voices who hold this view is that of Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, who will be joining me and (Turkish Foreign) Minister Davutoglu in Izmir for a meeting the next day,” he said.