Iran, big powers agree – to keep talking

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – At their first meeting after a year of sanctions and sabre-rattling over Iran’s nuclear programme, negotiators from Tehran and six world powers said “constructive” talks yesterday meant they would sit down again together next month.
A deal to reconvene in Baghdad on May 23 had been billed in advance by diplomats as a mark of a positive resumption and both Western and Russian negotiators at the talks in Turkey spoke of a more engaged tone from Iran, whose chief negotiator said he wanted to talk next about lifting Western sanctions on Tehran.
Washington made clear such a demand was premature, however. A senior US official in Istanbul spoke of an “urgency … for concrete progress” as the “window” for diplomacy was closing.
Over the past year, Israeli and US warnings of military strikes if Iran does not stop working on some aspects of nuclear technology have stoked fears of war – and raised oil prices – in an unsettled Middle East. A resumption of the kind of prolonged dialogue spoken of by both sides could help dampen anxieties.
“We expect that subsequent meetings will lead to concrete steps towards a comprehensive negotiated solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme,” said Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who leads negotiations for the six powers.
The group comprises the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain – along with Germany. It is known as the P5+1.
Calling yesterday’s talks “constructive and useful”, Ashton said: “We want now to move to a sustained process of dialogue.”
The meeting in Baghdad, a rare friendly venue for Iranians in the Arab world, would be part of a “step-by-step” approach. Junior officials would meet again before May 23, she added
Chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, however, made clear that Iran had no intention of stopping its plants that enrich uranium to contain 20 per cent of fissile material – much higher than the quality needed to generate electricity, but which Tehran says is for medical and other uses, not for warheads. Nonetheless, however remote a final accord may be between the Islamic republic and its adversaries, a return to the negotiating table may calm nerves after 15 angry months.