• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Russia stresses talks between Iran, 5+1 in near future

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Jan 18, IRNA -- Russia said on Thursday it is trying to firm up plans for a new round of talks this month between global powers and Iran on Tehran's nuclear program.

While media had declared that Iran and six world powers would resume talks in late January, Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement released on Thursday noted that Moscow would continue to work, including with Iranian partners, to resolve issue of time and venue for talks as soon as possible.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said later that there was an understanding among the parties involved that the meeting should take place this month, and that the dates reported by media - January 28-29 - were being discussed.

But it said the dates could change if there is no agreement on the venue, and added that Russia was open to any venue.

Russian Foreign Ministry said agreeing on a date and a venue for talks was ultimately up to the office of EU policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees contacts with Iran over its nuclear program on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

Last meeting and talks between Iran and world powers took place in June.

Senior UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a two-day talks with Iranian officials. Iran and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to meet again in February. Two days of talks between the UN atomic agency and Iran ended in Tehran on Thursday night.

The International Atomic Energy Agency team headed by IAEA Chief Inspector Herman Nackaerts started 7th round of negotiations with Iranian nuclear experts headed by Iran's envoy to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh since Wednesday morning.

The most recent meeting between the agency and Iran was held in Tehran on December 13, 2012.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its righteous right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA's questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.

9191**2050
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 80503955