Iran waiting for 5+1 group’s clear response to proposals: Jalili

TEHRAN,May 15(MNA) – Iran is waiting for world powers to provide a clear response to the proposals that it put forward at nuclear talks in the Kazakh city of Almaty in April, the country’s chief nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday. “We made proposals of equal weight at Almaty II (talks), and the 5+1 asked for a four-day interval to respond to the proposals. But the interval was extended,” Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told reporters upon his arrival in Istanbul, where he was scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton over Iran’s nuclear program. Ashton leads diplomatic efforts to resolve the decade-old nuclear dispute on behalf of the six major powers, namely the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany, which are known as the P5+1 group. The West suspects Tehran’s nuclear program may be aimed at developing nuclear weapons capability, but Iran insists it is purely for peaceful purposes. The most recent round of high-level talks between Iran and the P5+1 group, which failed to produce a breakthrough, was held in Almaty on April 5 and 6. They had held similar negotiations in the same city on February 26 and 27. According to the New York Times, in February talks, the major powers dropped their demand that Iran shut down its underground uranium-enrichment plant at Fordo, where it enriches uranium to 20 percent, and insisted instead that Iran suspend enrichment work there and agree to unspecified conditions that would make it hard to quickly resume production. They also said that Iran could continue to keep a small amount of uranium enriched to 20 percent for use in a research reactor that produces medical isotopes. If Tehran agreed to these steps, the major powers said they would suspend some sanctions against Iran, including trade in gold and petrochemicals, and would not impose new sanctions through the United Nations Security Council and the European Union. The main oil and financial sanctions would not be loosened. Iran’s main demand is that its right to uranium enrichment, as stipulated in the NPT, be recognized.