John
01-22-2011, 04:42 PM
World powers failed to make progress with Iran in two days of talks on its nuclear programme, with the EU calling the discussions disappointing and saying no further meetings between the two sides were planned.
"This is not the conclusion I'd hoped for," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said at the conclusion of the talks in Istanbul on Saturday.
"We'd hoped to embark on a discussion of practical ways forward and have made every effort to make that happen," she added. "I am disappointed."
An aide to Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili told Reuters that the talks would resume, even if the timing and venue were still undecided. However, Ashton said further talks depended on a more constructive approach from Tehran.
"The process can go forward if Iran chooses to respond positively," she said. "The door remains open. The choice remains in Iran's hands."
The West suspects Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons while Tehran says its atomic energy programme is peaceful.
The standoff has dragged on for eight years and expectations were low heading into the Istanbul talks between Iran and the six powers -- the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain -- whose delegations were led by Ashton.
The talks were a follow-up to a meeting in Geneva last month which was the first set of discussions between the two sides in more than a year.
Iran appears to have insisted on preconditions that were unacceptable to the West, including the lifting of sanctions and recognition of its right to enrich uranium.
Jalili said after the talks ended that any agreement would have to be based on Iran's right to pursue enrichment.
"I think for the purposes of these talks, Iran came with its pre-conditions very firmly in its mind and what it has gone away with is a total understanding that those are not acceptable," Ashton told reporters.
ESCALATION IN PAST YEAR
Iran has ignored U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment, with trade and other benefits offered in return, and refused to grant unfettered access for U.N. nuclear inspectors.
Uranium enriched to a low degree yields fuel for electricity or, if refined to a high level, the fissile core of a nuclear bomb.
Iran's nuclear standoff with the West has escalated in the past year, with the United Nations imposing new sanctions and Western states rejecting a revised proposal for Iran to swap some of its fuel abroad as too little, too late.
Ashton had outlined a possible revised offer for a nuclear fuel swap that would entail Iran handing over a large chunk of its stockpile of low enriched uranium. No offer was made as Iran's preconditions included the suspension of economic sanctions, a Western diplomat said.
The powers want to prevent Tehran from accumulating enough material for a nuclear weapon while negotiations proceed on a broader solution to the crisis.
Source - Yahoo.
"This is not the conclusion I'd hoped for," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said at the conclusion of the talks in Istanbul on Saturday.
"We'd hoped to embark on a discussion of practical ways forward and have made every effort to make that happen," she added. "I am disappointed."
An aide to Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili told Reuters that the talks would resume, even if the timing and venue were still undecided. However, Ashton said further talks depended on a more constructive approach from Tehran.
"The process can go forward if Iran chooses to respond positively," she said. "The door remains open. The choice remains in Iran's hands."
The West suspects Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons while Tehran says its atomic energy programme is peaceful.
The standoff has dragged on for eight years and expectations were low heading into the Istanbul talks between Iran and the six powers -- the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain -- whose delegations were led by Ashton.
The talks were a follow-up to a meeting in Geneva last month which was the first set of discussions between the two sides in more than a year.
Iran appears to have insisted on preconditions that were unacceptable to the West, including the lifting of sanctions and recognition of its right to enrich uranium.
Jalili said after the talks ended that any agreement would have to be based on Iran's right to pursue enrichment.
"I think for the purposes of these talks, Iran came with its pre-conditions very firmly in its mind and what it has gone away with is a total understanding that those are not acceptable," Ashton told reporters.
ESCALATION IN PAST YEAR
Iran has ignored U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment, with trade and other benefits offered in return, and refused to grant unfettered access for U.N. nuclear inspectors.
Uranium enriched to a low degree yields fuel for electricity or, if refined to a high level, the fissile core of a nuclear bomb.
Iran's nuclear standoff with the West has escalated in the past year, with the United Nations imposing new sanctions and Western states rejecting a revised proposal for Iran to swap some of its fuel abroad as too little, too late.
Ashton had outlined a possible revised offer for a nuclear fuel swap that would entail Iran handing over a large chunk of its stockpile of low enriched uranium. No offer was made as Iran's preconditions included the suspension of economic sanctions, a Western diplomat said.
The powers want to prevent Tehran from accumulating enough material for a nuclear weapon while negotiations proceed on a broader solution to the crisis.
Source - Yahoo.