Friday, September 27, 2013

Iran agrees to further nuclear talks. -Foreign minister's presence in meeting at UN marks highest-level direct Iran-US contact in decades.



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Iran and six major powers have agreed to meet in Geneva next month for further talks on resolving the standoff with Tehran on its nuclear programme.
US and Iranian officials emerged upbeat on Thursday from a meeting on Iran's nuclear programme, but both sides sounded a cautionary note, with the US saying there was more work to do and Iran insisting on quick sanctions relief.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, said after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry following the meeting that the key world powers had agreed  to fast-track negotiations over the programme to within a year.

  • However, Kerry said later that the US would not lift sanctions on Iran until it showed it was not pursuing a nuclear-weapons capability.

President Hassan Rouhani said Iran was committed to negotiate on its nuclear programme in "good faith" after the highest-level talks yet held with world powers.
"We are fully prepared to seriously engage in the process toward a negotiated and mutually agreeable settlement and do so in good faith and with a business-like mind," Rouhani told a forum in New York.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said that the UN meeting with Iran officials on Thursday had been a very positive first step in resolving the dispute.
"We had a discussion about how we would go forward with an ambitious timeframe to see whether we can make progress quickly," Ashton said after the meeting.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and included Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and counterparts from the US, France, Russia, China and Germany.

Zarif said after taking part in bilateral talks with Kerry, in one of the highest level contacts between the two foes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, that they had stressed "the need to continue these discussions to give it the political impetus that it requires and to hopefully to reach a conclusion within a reasonable time."
"We agreed to jump-start the process so that we could move forward with a view to agreeing first on the perimeters of the end game," the foreign minister said.  "And move towards finalising it hopefully within a year's time.
"I thought I was too ambitious, bordering naivete. But I saw that some of my colleagues were even more ambitious and wanted to do it faster.''
Kerry said he was pleased with the new positive tone from Iran.

Ambitious plan

"Needless to say, one meeting and a change in tone, which was welcome, doesn't answer those questions yet and there is a lot of work to be done," Kerry said after the talks.
He later said in an interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes later on Thursday that one concrete step Iran could take to show it was serious about not seeking nuclear arms would be to open up its Fordow uranium enrichment facility to UN inspectors.
  • "The United States is not going to lift the sanctions until it is clear that a very verifiable, accountable, transparent process is in place, whereby we know exactly what Iran is going be doing with its programme," Kerry said.
  • Ashton said the Geneva meeting on October 15 to 16 would "carry on from today's meeting and hopefully move this process forward."
aljazeera.com
27/9/13
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5 comments :

  1. Atomstreit mit Iran Sicherheitsrat erzielt erste Annäherung....

    Endlich tragen die Verhandlungen des UN-Sicherheitsrates mit dem Iran erste Früchte: US-Außenminister Kerry sprach mit seinem iranischen Kollegen Sarif, eine Einigung rückt in greifbare Nähe.

    Aufbruchstimmung im Atomstreit mit dem Iran: Die Außenminister der fünf UN-Vetomächte und Deutschlands verständigten sich in New York mit dem iranischen Chefdiplomaten Mohammed Dschawad Sarif darauf, Mitte Oktober wieder über das umstrittene Nuklearprogramm Teherans zu verhandeln. Am Rande der Sitzung der sogenannten 5+1-Gruppe kam es zu einem historischen Zweiergespräch zwischen Sarif und US-Außenminister John Kerry.....http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Politik/d/3584510/sicherheitsrat-erzielt-erste-annaeherung.html
    27/9/13

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  2. Iran, UN atomic agency in first talks since Rouhani election...

    Iran and the United States held their highest-level substantive talks in a generation on Thursday, saying the tone was positive but sounding cautious about resolving the long-running standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met after Zarif held wider talks with the United States and other major powers to address Western suspicions that Iran may be trying to develop atomic weapons.

    Diplomats from the major countries described the atmosphere of the wider talks in positive terms, but they, as well as the U.S. and Iranian foreign ministers, stressed the difficulty of resolving a dispute that has eluded solution for a decade.

    "We had a very constructive meeting," Kerry told reporters after the talks at the United Nations, where he and Zarif had sat next to one another and shook hands, according to a senior U.S. official, in a gesture that suggested a desire by both sides to explore how to ease their more than three-decade estrangement.

    But Kerry added, "Needless to say, one meeting and a change in tone, which was welcome, doesn't answer those questions yet and there is a lot of work to be done."

    The United States wants Iran to address questions about its nuclear program, which Washington and its allies suspect is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, saying its program is for peaceful, civilian uses.

    Zarif, a U.S.-educated diplomat, also sounded a cautionary note and insisted on quick relief from the painful U.S., European Union and U.N. sanctions imposed for Iran's refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

    "I am satisfied with this first step. Now we have to see whether we can match our positive words with serious deeds so we can move forward," he told reporters.

    "Of course as we move forward, there has to be removal of sanctions and in the end game there has to be a total lifting of all sanctions and both bilateral sanctions, unilateral sanctions as well as multilateral sanctions and U.N. sanctions and we hope to be able to move in that direction within a short span of time."

    Kerry said Zarif had put some "possibilities" on the table, but stressed there was more work to be done.......http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/iran-un-atomic-agency-in-first-talks-since-rouhani-election.aspx?pageID=238&nID=55242&NewsCatID=359
    27/9/13

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  3. Iran plays down prospects for quick IAEA nuclear deal...

    Iran’s envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog played down prospects for a quick breakthrough in talks on Friday with the agency on a stalled investigation into Tehran’s disputed atomic program.

    Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, was asked by reporters whether he expected an agreement in discussions due to start with the IAEA at around 10 a.m. (0800 GMT).

    The meeting between Iran and the IAEA will be the first since Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, took office as new Iranian president in early August, pledging to try to resolve the Islamic state's nuclear dispute with the West.

    It comes after talks between Iran and world powers at the United Nations on Thursday.

    “This is the first meeting so nobody I guess should expect that in just (a) one-day meeting we can solve (our) problems,” Najafi, who was appointed new Iranian ambassador last month, said.

    “We are going to have a first meeting with the agency. We expect to review the existing issues and also exchange views on the ways we can continue our cooperation to resolve all issues.”

    Iran and the United States held their highest-level substantive talks in a generation at the United Nations, saying the tone was positive but sounding cautious about resolving the standoff.

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met after Zarif held wider talks with the United States and other major powers to address Western suspicions that Iran may be trying to develop atomic weapons.

    Separately from big power diplomacy to resolve the decade-old dispute that could yet trigger a Middle East war, the IAEA has held 10 rounds of talks with Iran since early 2012 to try to resume a blocked inquiry into suspected atom bomb research.

    The talks have so far yielded no results but Western states see Friday’s meeting in Vienna as a litmus test of any substantive Iranian shift from its intransigence under Rouhani’s hardline conservative predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    Iran denies it is seeking to develop the capability make nuclear weapons, saying its program is a peaceful bid to generate electricity.
    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/09/27/Iran-plays-down-prospects-for-quick-IAEA-nuclear-deal.html
    27/9/13

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  4. Iran: retour triomphal pour le président Rohani après sa semaine new yorkaise...

    Le président Hassan Rohani est rentré samedi triomphalement en Iran après une semaine diplomatique intense à New York marquée par un contact téléphonique historique avec le président américain Barack Obama, la "fin d'un vieux tabou" selon la presse.

    A son arrivée à Téhéran, une soixantaine de jeunes islamistes ont accueilli le président modéré aux cris de "mort à l'Amérique" et "mort à Israël", l'un d'entre eux jetant même une chaussure contre la voiture présidentielle, sans toutefois l'atteindre.

    Un groupe de 200 à 300 partisans a lancé pour sa part un "Rohani merci" au président, dont l'élection en juin, après huit années de mandat du conservateur Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, avait suscité l'espoir d'un dégel des relations entre son pays et les Occidentaux.

    M. Rohani, qui a été sous le feu des projecteurs cette semaine à New York où il assistait à l'Assemblée générale des Nations unies, s'est entretenu avec Barack Obama juste avant son départ pour Téhéran. Dans une première déclaration après son retour, il a déclaré que le président américain avait pris l’initiative de l’appeler, alors qu'un haut responsable américain avait affirmé plus tôt le contraire.

    "Nous étions en train d'aller vers l'aéroport, lorsqu'on m'a informé que la Maison Blanche avait appelé notre ambassadeur aux Nations unies, affirmant que M. Obama désirait me parler quelques minutes", a déclaré M. Rohani, ajoutant qu'il avait accepté.....http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_iran-retour-triomphal-pour-le-president-rohani-apres-sa-semaine-new-yorkaise?id=8100341
    28/9/13

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  5. Netanyahu to warn Obama on Iran's 'sweet talk' ...

    AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House on Monday, after warning the United States should not be duped by Iranian 'sweet talk' and charm.

    Netanyahu was expected to tell President Barack Obama that a diplomatic solution to Tehran's standoff with the West must include the dismantling of its nuclear program -- a more demanding position than Washington's own.

    His limousine pulled up at the West Wing of the White House, as chants of "try Bibi for war crimes" rang out from protesters across the street who used the Israeli leader's nickname.

    The Oval Office talks with Obama threatened to open new tensions in an often testy relationship, which both sides tried to put on a more friendly footing when the US leader visited the Jewish state earlier this year.

    Netanyahu arrives as the US capital digests the impact of a startling diplomatic opening which has followed the election of President Hassan Rouhani, and a historic phone call between Obama and the Iranian leader on Friday.

    Obama said the conversation had convinced him there was genuine hope of a "resolution" of Iran's dispute with the West over its nuclear program but would require "meaningful and "transparent" action by Tehran.

    But Netanyahu has greeted Rouhani's conciliatory tone with deep skepticism and warned that it shields a desire to press ahead quickly with a nuclear weapons program.......http://www.france24.com/en/20130930-netanyahu-warn-obama-irans-sweet-talk
    30/9/13

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