World Powers Gather in Turkey for Iran Nuclear Talks
VOA News 20 January 2011
World leaders are gathering in Turkey for Friday's talks with Iran on its controversial nuclear program.
Iran has been posturing in recent days over what it is willing to discuss. Some top officials have said Iran will not talk about its "nuclear dossier." Others have said Iran is only willing to talk about a nuclear fuel swap to run its reactors.
The meeting on Friday and Saturday includes the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, a group known as the P5 + 1. The group is hoping to address concerns that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Iran is facing Western sanctions because of its disputed nuclear program.
Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili says the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly verified that his country's nuclear program does not violate non-proliferation treaties. Iranian state media reports say he commented Thursday after arriving in Istanbul.
Separately, Reuters news quotes Tehran's IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying world powers need to move quickly on a proposed fuel swap. He said there would be no need for the deal once Tehran begins putting its own 20 percent enriched uranium into its reactors.
At a Thursday news conference in Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned the U.S. and other Western powers against imposing any more unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying the move would be "counterproductive."
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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