Tehran, Iran (AHN) – Responding to European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton’s call to revive nuclear talks from November 15-18, Iran on Wednesday proposed fresh dates to resume talks with major world powers.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sent a letter to Ashton saying Tehran could restart negotiations on November 23 or December 5 in Istanbul. The P5+1 includes, China, Russia, U.S., France, Britain and Germany, as well as Iran last met for talks in Geneva in October last year.
Ashton’s office confirmed that they received Jalili’s letter but remained silent on confirming dates and other details of it. It only said that the world powers would soon respond to Iranian proposal.
“We will now discuss the details and proposals with our… partners and respond to Doctor Jalili in the coming days,” a spokeswoman said.
U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley hoped that the nuclear talks would start as early as the end of this month. “I would expect there would be consultations within the P5+1 in the next day or two,” Crowley said.
The Department spokesman further speculated multiple meetings and venues on the cards.
Crowley added that if the talks, which are stalled since past one year, revive, he hopes a series of meetings and different locations might be held in future.
The U.S.-led world powers fear that Iran is creating a nuclear bomb under civilian cover and wants the Islamic nation to suspend its uranium enrichment activity – a charge Tehran vehemently denies.
Despite the denial and insistence that its nuclear enrichment is solely for peaceful purposes, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the country’s atomic body in February to start enriching uranium to 20 percent after they failed to sign a nuclear fuel swap deal with the U.N.
Experts say that 20 percent of enriched uranium is sufficient to make a crude weapon.
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