Iran's foreign minister said he hoped a "roadmap" for negotiations could be reached in nuclear talks with world powers this week but added that a higher-level meeting would probably be needed.
Iran
's
foreign minister said he hoped a "roadmap" for negotiations could be
reached in nuclear talks with world powers this week but added that a
higher-level meeting would probably be needed.
The
Geneva
talks, set to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, will be the first such
negotiations since President Hassan Rouhani, a reputed moderate, took office in
August.
"I hope that we will be able to reach a roadmap by Wednesday but... it
will probably be necessary to have a new ministerial meeting," Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Facebook page late on Sunday.
A first meeting between Zarif and his counterparts from the six powers took
place last month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which
was accompanied by a landmark bilateral meeting between him and U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry.
The Geneva negotiations will be between Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas
Araqchi and representatives of the P5+1 group made up of the U.K., China,
France, Russia and the U.S. plus Germany, who will be led by European Union
foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
After meeting Ashton in
London
on
Sunday, Mr. Kerry said that the window for diplomacy with
Iran
was
"cracking open".
But he also warned that
Washington
would
remain wary during the negotiations as he spoke to the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee summit in
Washington
via
satellite from
London
.
"When President (Barack) Obama says that he will not allow a nuclear-armed
Iran
, he
means what he says. I believe firmly that no deal is better than a bad
deal," Kerry said.
Israel
has
repeatedly called on its
U.S.
ally
not to fall for "sweet talk" from the new Iranian president,
insisting that actions not words are essential to ensure there is no
possibility of
Iran
ever
acquiring the capability to build an atomic bomb.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz called Monday for the pressure of
EU and
U.S.
sanctions against
Iran
to be
kept up, saying that was what was driving it to seek an agreement with the
major powers.
"The Iranians are coming to dialogue... only because of the very severe
economic pressure," Mr. Steinitz told reporters in
Jerusalem
.
Zarif will take part in the opening sessions in
Geneva
but
Araqchi will lead the Iranian delegation during the talks.
The foreign minister wrote on his Facebook page, however, that "if
necessary, I will also speak".
"We want to change the approach of the past six years which have given no
results," he said.
Zarif has taken over as
Iran
's
lead nuclear negotiator, but he has so far refused to be drawn on what
Iran
might
offer in return for relief from EU and
U.S.
sanctions, which have badly hit
Iran
's oil
exports and its access to global banking.
"We will present our views, as agreed, in
Geneva
, not
before," Mr. Zarif tweeted.
Mr. Araqchi, speaking to the state broadcaster on Sunday, said the "plan
that will be presented by Zarif to the P5+1 countries during the opening
session... has been prepared so that there can be no pretext to refuse
it".
He did not give further details of the plan but said
Iran
would
not accept any demand to hand over its stockpiles of enriched uranium.
"We will negotiate about the volume, levels and the methods of enrichment
but shipping out the (enriched) material is a red line for
Iran
,"
Mr. Araqchi said.
Iran
currently has 6,774 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and nearly 186 kilograms
of material enriched to 20%, as well as 187 kilograms of the 20% material
converted to uranium oxide for use in fuel plates.
The 20% enriched uranium is the source of the greatest concern for the West and
Israel, which fear Tehran could divert some of it for further enrichment
towards the more than 90% level required for a nuclear weapon.
Iran
insists that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, and has
defied repeated ultimatums from the U.N. Security Council to suspend all
enrichment.
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