Turkey Tuesday urged Iran and Western powers to implement a nuclear fuel-swap deal and launch talks as soon as possible before the standoff over Tehran's atomic program worsens.
Turkey
Tuesday urged
Iran
and
Western powers to implement a nuclear fuel-swap deal and launch talks as soon
as possible before the standoff over
Tehran
's
atomic program worsens.
"If they do not sit down and talk, we will be in a worse-off situation
this time next year. Time is working against a solution," foreign ministry
spokesman Burak Ozugergin told a press conference in
Ankara
.
"President Ahmadinejad alluded to the month of August [for the talks]. We
wish they would take place sooner," Ozugergin said.
On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ruled out talks with the P5+1
world powers--the U.K., France, Russia, China, the U.S. and Germany--on
Tehran's uranium-enrichment program until the end of the Iranian month of
Mordad, around late August.
The Iranian leader described the freeze as a "penalty" in retaliation
for a fourth round of sanctions that the United Nations Security Council
slapped on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium-enrichment work.
Iran
's
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday that the freeze didn't apply
to discussions on a nuclear fuel-swap deal brokered by
Turkey
and
Brazil
in
May.
Ozugergin described the fuel deal as an "important confidence-building
measure" and said it was still on the table.
"We would like this deal to be implemented and for negotiations to be held
to resolve outstanding issues" in order to secure a peaceful settlement to
the dispute over
Tehran
's
nuclear program, he added.
Under the May deal,
Iran
agreed to send 1,200 kilogram of its low-enriched uranium to
Turkey
. In
return, the Islamic republic would be supplied with higher-grade fuel from
Russia
and
France
for a
research reactor.
However, it was cold-shouldered by the
U.S.
and
other world powers, on the grounds that it didn't go far enough to allay fears
that
Tehran
is
using its atomic drive as a cover for a nuclear-weapons program.
Διαβάστε ακόμα
Πεμ, 10 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 19:39
Πεμ, 10 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 19:36
Τρι, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 19:58
Τρι, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 19:54
Τετ, 18 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 18:32