Presumed date for EU dialogue on Iran nuclear program

by Pablo Osorio Ramírez
Prensa Latina

The dialogue between the sextet of international mediators and the negotiator Said Jalili on the Iranian nuclear program will most likely resume next January 20 in Istanbul, Turkey, an official source in Europe reported on Friday.

According to a spokesman for the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union (EU), Catherine Ashton, the date is tentative. There is a positive reaction from Tehran, she added.

Ashton, on behalf of the so-called Group 5 +1 (permanent members of the Security Council of the UN plus Germany) leads the dialogue on the controversial topic, addressed again early last December in Geneva, after 14 months of stagnation.

The delegation of the Islamic Republic insists on beginning with the G5 +1 establishing a multilateral debate to analyze and solve various global issues such as the powers of the International Energy Agency (IAEA), intending to focus only on the nuclear program of this nation.

Even without specifying a date of the meeting in Turkey, Ashton forwarded today in Hungary that this country, leading the half-yearly EU presidency, rejected an Iranian proposal to visit some of its nuclear facilities in the next few weeks.

The Persian state government on Tuesday invited representatives from countries of the Group of Vienna and other members of the IAEA to visit two of its main facilities, to test the transparency of its program.

The work of inspection applies only to the international body affirmed the European diplomat, in clear opposition to Tehran's gesture to end speculation about its nuclear plans.

Iran persists in its desire to talk about its project to develop civilian technologies from the peaceful atom.

Translated from the Spanish version by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru