Iran, world powers resume talks to resolve nuclear dispute

TEHRAN,April 6(MNA) – Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) started two days of talks in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Friday to find a diplomatic solution to a decade-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program. As the talks got under way in Almaty, Michael Mann, a spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has been leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of world powers, told reporters, “We are hoping the Iranian side will come back to us with a clear and concrete response… to a fair and balanced proposal.” At a press conference held after the first round of talks on Friday, Ali Baqeri, Iran’s deputy chief nuclear negotiator, said that Iran’s “specific proposals for a new round of cooperation between the 5+1 and Iran” were put forward at the talks. According to Baqeri, the proposals had been developed within the framework of Iran’s comprehensive plan presented in Moscow on June 18 and 19, 2012. The talks continued in the evening after which Baqeri told reporters that Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council who leads the Iranian delegation, answered the 5+1 group’s questions and elaborated on Iran’s proposals. The Washington Post quoted a Western diplomat as saying on Friday, “There has not yet been a clear and concrete response.” “There were some interesting but not fully explained general comments on our ideas.” According to the New York Times, in the previous round of talks in Almaty on February 26 and 27, the major powers demanded that Iran suspend enrichment work at the underground Fordo facility - where it enriches uranium to 20 percent - and agree to unspecified conditions that would make it hard to quickly resume production. They also said Iran could continue to keep a small amount of uranium enriched to 20 percent for use in the Tehran research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer treatment. Iran’s main demand is that its right to uranium enrichment, as stipulated in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, be recognized. In a speech at a university in Almaty on Thursday, Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said, “Tomorrow’s talks can go forward with one word. That is the recognition of the rights of the Iranian nation, particularly the right to enrichment.” The main bone of contention between Tehran and the West is Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Iran says all its nuclear activities are totally peaceful, and, as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory, it has the legal right to produce nuclear fuel for its research reactors and nuclear power plants.