World powers urged
Iran
to
cooperate with the United Nations atomic watchdog at a meeting here Wednesday,
where
Iran
once again
found itself in the hot seat over its controversial nuclear drive.
"We call on
Iran
to
cooperate fully with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency," the
so-called P5+1 grouping said in their first joint statement to the IAEA's board
of governors in two years.
The P5+1 comprises the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--the
U.K., China, France, Russia, the U.S.--plus Germany and is talking with the
Islamic republic to allay fears over its nuclear program, which Iran insists is
peaceful, but which the West believes masks a covert weapons program.
The last time the six powers issued a joint statement to the IAEA's 35-member
board of governors was in March 2009.
Since then, the group has held two rounds of talks with
Iran
, in
Geneva
in
December and in
Istanbul
in
January, but which produced no concrete breakthrough in the long-running
standoff.
"We came to Geneva and Istanbul with a constructive spirit and proposed in
Istanbul several practical ideas aimed at building confidence and to facilitate
the engagement of a constructive dialogue with Iran on the basis of reciprocity
and step-by-step approach," said Russian governor Grigory Berdennikov on
behalf of the P5+1.
While no "substantive result" was reached in
Istanbul
,
"we look to
Iran
to
engage in future in a similarly constructive spirit," Berdennikov said.
"We remain ready to participate actively in the process with
Iran
. We
expect
Iran
to
demonstrate a pragmatic attitude and to respond positively to our proposal and
to our openness toward dialogue and negotiations. The door remains open,"
he said.