As Iran and six world powers began negotiations about the country’s nuclear program Monday, the head of Tehran’s nuclear program on Sunday upped the ante, announcing a breakthrough that could make the Islamic Republic self-suffi
As Iran and six world powers began negotiations about the country's nuclear program Monday, the head of Tehran's nuclear program on Sunday upped the ante, announcing a breakthrough that could make the Islamic Republic self-sufficient in the production of uranium. The meeting formally began shortly after 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) after participants entered a conference center near the Swiss mission to the United Nations in Geneva. The delegations of Iran, the European Union, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Germany hurried inside to escape pouring rain, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief negotiator, in the foyer of the conference room. "Don't expect much of anything," a chief negotiator from one of the six powers inside the meeting told a reporter shortly before the talks convened. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. In his announcement, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran had achieved the ability to produce its own yellowcake, uranium powder that is used in the process of creating nuclear fuel. By using ore mined in southern Iran, he said, the nation would no longer need imported uranium. "The enemies and ill-wishers have always tried to create despair and disappointment among our youth, academicians, engineers and our nation, but today we witness the delivery of the first batch of yellowcake which is produced inside the country," Salehi said at a news conference broadcast on state television.Geneva Talks Start after Iran Announced Uranium Self-Sufficiency
