Nuclear talks between Iran
and six major powers resumed Tuesday for the first time since last
June, with the international community presenting a new proposal to
Tehran and underlining the "urgent need" for progress.
The talks in Kazakhstan's largest city aren't expected to
achieve a decisive breakthrough in the decade-long stalemate between the
West and Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, according to U.S. and
European officials involved in the diplomacy.
But the governments are pressing Iran
to commit to a process in the coming months to end the most threatening
element of its nuclear program, its production of near weapons-grade
fuel, said these officials.
The U.S. and Europeans are willing, in turn, to ease some of the sanctions on Iran
that have largely frozen its banks out of the global financial system
and caused the collapse in the value of Tehran's currency, the rial,
over the past year, officials said.
"Iran
needs to understand that there is an urgent need to make concrete and
tangible progress in the talks and this meeting in Almaty is a genuine
opportunity to engage in serious talks about a concrete
confidence-building step," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine
Ashton's spokesman told reporters soon after the formal negotiations
started in Kazakhstan's largest city.
"I would say that from our perspective, the onus is very much
on the Iranians," said the spokesman, Michael Mann. Mr. Mann said the
revised offer to Tehran would address "concerns on the exclusive
peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program" but was also "responsive
to Iranian ideas." He did not give details.
Iran's Fars news agency reported that Iran
brought several versions of a new package it would propose to its
counterparts, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council plus Germany, the P5+1 group. Fars said Iran would present the one that fits the offer from the six powers.
An Iranian official said the proposals are based around the
framework of ideas put forward at the last talks in Moscow last June
which ended without progress.
Over the weekend, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said Iran wouldn't make any concessions that limit its right to enrich uranium under the U.N.'s Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"We will listen of course with great interest" to any offer
from the Iranians, Mr. Mann said. He said he was unaware of a new
Iranian proposal.
The first set of roundtable talks broke up after roughly two
and a half hours, officials said. The Iranian team had a bilateral
meeting with Chinese officials in the morning while Baroness Ashton met
with the negotiators from the P5+1 countries.
U.S. officials have said they are keen for bilateral discussions with the Iranian negotiating team of Saeed Jalili. However, Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed the idea for now
and U.S. officials said Monday direct talks in Almaty were unlikely.