Geneva, October 02: Iran negotiator Saeed Jalili said Thursday “good” discussions had taken place over the country’s nuclear programme and international inspectors would be allowed to “supervise” its new enrichment plant.
“We had good discussions and we expressed the points of view of the Islamic republic,” he said after the talks with six world powers, adding the meeting agreed on the format for further negotiations to be held by the end of October.
“There has been a stop in discussions since July 2008, but I do not have the feeling that the discussions will stop, rather they will continue,” he added.
Jalili met his counterparts from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in a villa overlooking Lake Geneva and the parties agreed to reconvene later this month.
Following Thursday’s discussions, Jalili said during a news conference that “all countries should be able to benefit from” the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but “no one should have nuclear weapons.”
“We are bound by our obligations as part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” he said, adding that Iran would arrange for the UN nuclear watchdog — the IAEA — to “supervise” its new enrichment plant at the holy city of Qom.
The Geneva nuclear talks were held in a “constructive” atmosphere, Iran’s foreign minister said Thursday adding that Tehran was ready for higher level talks.
“We consider the atmosphere (in the Geneva talks) as a constructive one,” Manouchehr Mottaki told a press conference at UN headquarters.
“Iran has the readiness to enhance the level of such talks up to the level of a summit,” he added, expressing hope that “the other side will have the same political will and determination.”
Mottaki again defended his country’s right to pursue uranium enrichment as part of its peaceful nuclear program aimed at generating electricity.
Iran agreed in principle Thursday to ship most of its declared enriched uranium stockpile to Russia, where it would be refined as fuel for a small reactor producing medical isotopes, a US official said.
Tehran also agreed to grant the United Nations access to a newly-revealed uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom.
Under the tentative plan, Iran would ship the bulk of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is enriched to about 3.5 percent, to Russia, where it would be further refined to 19.75 purity, still far below nuclear weapons grade, a US official told reporters in Geneva.
French technicians would then use the material to produce fuel rods that would be returned to Iran to feed the reactor, which Tehran says will run out of fuel in the 12 to 18 months, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“The potential advantage of this, if it’s implemented, is that it would significantly reduce Iran’s LEU stockpile which itself is a source of anxiety in the Middle East and elsewhere,” said the official.
Iran, the official said, came to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “a few months ago” with a request to replace the Tehran reactor’s fuel supply, last provided by the Argentine government in the early 1990s.
The IAEA then conveyed to the Iranians a joint US and Russian proposal under which Tehran could use its own LEU stockpile as the basis for its needed reactor fuel.
The official hailed the plan as a “positive interim step to help build confidence.”
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is set to travel to Tehran this weekend to iron out the details of the plan and the powers and Iran will reconvene at a meeting in Vienna on October 18 led by experts from the UN nuclear watchdog.
In Washington US President Barack Obama called on Iran to take “constructive” steps after the talks and warned that Washington was ready to up pressure if Tehran used delay tactics.
“Today’s meeting was a constructive beginning but it must be followed with constructive action by the Iranian government,” Obama said in a short televised statement at the White House.
Jalili and US envoy William Burns also held their countries’ highest level talks in 30 years. They discussed the increasingly tense nuclear standoff, US officials said.
“We expect to see swift action,” said Obama. “We’re committed to serious and meaningful engagement, but we’re not interested in talking for the sake of talking.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it had been a “productive day, but the proof of that has not yet come to fruition.”
Solana said the world powers and Iran had agreed in principle on Iranian uranium being sent to a third country to be enriched and used for a research reactor in Tehran.
“Iran has told us that it plans to cooperate fully and immediately with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the new enrichment facility near Qom,” Solana told a press conference.
“We agreed to intensify dialogue in the coming weeks,” he said, adding that “this is only a start” and that “we shall need to see progress on some of the practical steps we discussed today.”
The White House offered a cautious welcome to the talks.
“We believe it was a constructive start,” Gibbs said.
Iran insists it has the right to develop nuclear technology, which it says is aimed at generating energy for its growing population.
Although Iran has oil, it is still dependent on petrol imports to meet about 40 percent of domestic consumption.
Israel is the only country in the Middle Ease that actually has nuclear weapons.
Observers say due the strong Jewish and pro-Israel lobbies in the US and some European countries, these countries have taken a hypocritical stance in relation to nuclear issues in the region.
Tehran had repeatedly protested against Israeli and US war threats, warning them that it would retaliate in the event of any strike against Iran.
—Agencies