Six world powers and Iran began talks in Turkey on Friday, a Turkish diplomat said. The delegations met behind closed doors at Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace.
Six world powers and Iran began talks in Turkey on Friday, a Turkish diplomat said. The delegations met behind closed doors at Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace. Al-Manar reporter to Tehran noted that despite the talks will be nuclear by title; the table of discussion wouldn’t include nuclear topics, under an Iranian request. The Iranian nuclear program is believed by the Iranians to be a closed file, he said. The discussions would focus on a deal that would see Iran ship out some of its low-enriched uranium in exchange for fuel rods for a small reactor making medical isotopes. The meeting’s agenda will include other topics raised by the Islamic Republic: clarifications requested by Iran concerning the assassination of some of its scientists, the revelation of the Zionist nuclear project and its war heads, in addition to other topics related the threats and challenges represented by the deployment of foreign military forces in the region. The Iranian delegation is headed by Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili while EU policy chief Catherine Ashton represented the so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany. The previous round of talks were held in the Swiss city of Geneva on December 6-7, during which both sides agreed to hold the next round of negotiations in Istanbul in late January. Tehran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said in Moscow on Thursday that Iran will be able to enrich uranium even in the event of a military attack on its nuclear facilities. “We are faced with a very serious threat and so we have had to take measures to protect our facilities. We have provided for another facility in Fardo near Qom,” Reuters quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh as saying.Istanbul Talks Begin with No Nuclear Topics on Agenda
