Iran, World Powers’ Experts to Meet in Istanbul Sunday to Set Agenda for Fresh Talks
TEHRAN (FNA)- Expert delegations from Iran and the Group 5+1 are due to meet in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday to discuss the agenda for the next round of talks between the two sides.
The two sides’ experts are slated to outline topics of the upcoming talks between the chief negotiators of Iran and the G5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) due to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in April.
The two sides will likely issue a statement at the end of their two day talks in Istanbul on Monday.
Iran has called on the US and other western states to use the upcoming talks in Kazakhstan as an opportunity to build Tehran’s confidence and prove their honesty.
The last round of the talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 ended in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 27.
During the talks Iran and the world powers agreed to hold an experts meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 17-18 and then continue their talks at the level of their top negotiators in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 5-6.
Before the Almaty talks, Iran and the G5+1 had held three rounds of negotiations in Geneva, two rounds in Istanbul, one round in Baghdad and one round in Moscow in June.
Last week, diplomatic sources in Europe said that the grounds are now ready to lift part of the current economic sanctions on Iran in the next round of talks between Tehran and the six world powers.
According to a report by Norway’s Radio Austin, diplomatic circles in Europe have announced that the next meeting between Iran and G5+1 will witness a real change in the Iran-West nuclear standoff and at the end of the day “the Europeans will announce a partial removal of economic sanctions against Iran”.
The report said that Europeans have realized that softening Iran’s economic sanctions is a must since they have failed to prevent Iran from installing thousands of new generation centrifuges and the economic sanctions have left no impact on the activities of Iranian scientists.
The report came after Iran voiced optimism about the removal of the West’s unjust sanctions in the new Iranian year (to start March 21).
The announced was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in a joint press conference with his Benin counterpart Nassirou Arifari Bako in Tehran.
Based on the latest information, the next Iranian year will be promising for lifting the sanctions, the Iranian minister said.
He said that the time is ripe to resolve the nuclear dispute with the western governments.
via Fars News Agency :: Iran, World Powers’ Experts to Meet in Istanbul Sunday to Set Agenda for Fresh Talks.
Nuclear experts from Iran and six world powers head to Istanbul next week to discuss a revised international proposal that Iranian officials welcomed as a “turning point” at a meeting in Kazakhstan last month.
The U.S. team to the Istanbul talks, to be held March 18, includes two veteran State Department arms control negotiators, Robert Einhorn and Jim Timbie, as well as Jofi Joseph, an Iran director in the White House WMD shop, US officials told the Back Channel Thursday. Einhorn and Timbie previously attended technical talks with Iran held in Istanbul last July, along with then White House WMD czar Gary Samore, who left the administration in January for Harvard.
Iran’s delegation to the technical talks in Istanbul next week is expected, as last July, to be led by Hamid-Reza Asgari, a longtime member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, who multiple Iranian sources tell Al-Monitor is an Iranian intelligence officer who has been involved in Iran’s international arms control discussions for over a decade. Iran’s team to Istanbul last July also included Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
(A revealing detail on their dynamic comes from a late 2009 US cable, released by Wikileaks, and written by then US envoy to the IAEA Glyn Davies. It describes Soltanieh as having moved to shake US Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman’s hand at a 2009 Vienna meeting, “necessitating Iranian Legal Advisor Asgari to pull him [Soltanieh] away from” the U.S. delegation, Davies wrote.)
American and Iranian officials had fairly extensive discussions at the last technical meeting in Istanbul last July, a senior US official, speaking not for attribution, told journalists at P5+1 talks with Iran in Almaty, Kazakhstan last month.
“There’s a little heightened hope that Iran will respond in a meaningful way when they meet,” Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department arms control official now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, told the Back Channel Thursday. “If Iran comes back engaging in the details…if they are talking the same language…it would be very much progress.”
President Obama, speaking on Wednesday ahead of his first presidential trip to Israel next week, said that the United States currently assesses it would be at least a year before Iran could manufacture a nuclear weapon if it decided to do so, and the United States and international partners had been intensifying efforts to reach a diplomatic resolution in that window because it would prove more durable.
“Right now, we think it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but obviously we don’t want to cut it too close,” Obama told Israel’s Channel 2 Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
“So when I’m consulting with [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi [Netanyahu], my message to him will be the same as before,” Obama continued. “If we can resolve it diplomatically, that is a more lasting solution. But if not, I continue to keep all options on the table.”
Arms control experts said calculating such a time line involves a complicated set of likely and unlikely assumptions. “If Iran decided today to build nuclear weapons, it would require years, not weeks or months, to deploy a credible nuclear arsenal,” Greg Thielmann, a former US intelligence analyst now with the Arms Control Association, told the Back Channel Thursday.
The Istanbul experts level talks come as Iranian leaders have intensified debate on the pros and cons of direct talks with the United States in recent days, suggesting Tehran may be mulling whether to take President Obama up on the offer and under what conditions.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s official website this week posted previously unreleased photos of Iranian and American officials meeting in Iraq in 2007, as well as interviews with Iranian officials involved in the talks, Al-Monitor reported Thursday. Then US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told Al-Monitor Friday that he found Tehran’s publication of the photos “interesting,” and said they were of meetings he attended in Iraq in 2007, when he served as the US envoy to Baghdad.
Two Iranian presidential candidates close to the Supreme Leader also weighed in on prospects for US-Iran talks in Iranian media interviews this week.
Ali Akbar Velayati, the Supreme Leader’s longtime foreign policy advisor and a former Iranian foreign minister, speaking to Iranian journalists Wednesday, “said that as long as Americans have not changed their behavior and methods of conduct with Iran, the stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran will remain unchanged,” the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Thursday.
But former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said there were situations when the Supreme Leader would endorse talks with the Americans, as he has on certain occasions in the past.
“It is not the Supreme Leader’s view that Iran and the United States should not have negotiations and relations until the Day of Judgment,” Rowhani, the Supreme Leader’s representative to the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, was cited by Iranian media Thursday.
“If there is a situation where the country’s dignity and interests are..served, he will give permission for dialogue…as…negotiations have been held between the two countries on issues related to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the nuclear (issue),” Rowhani continued.
(Hamid-Reza Asgari, top right, a senior advisor in Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, is pictured with Iran’s envoy to the IAEA Ali Ashgar Soltanieh (left, with beard), attending a meeting in Vienna with French, Russian and American diplomats October 21, 2009. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer.)
Almaty, Kazakhstan__ Negotiators from Iran and six world powers announced they would hold two more meetings over the next month to discuss a new international proposal aimed at curbing Iran’s 20% enrichment and nuclear breakout capacity, in exchange for some sanctions relief. The announcement came at the conclusion of two days of talks here that have seemingly turned out to be among the most positive of the past year, though both sides say they still have some work to do to narrow differences.
The parties agreed to hold an experts meeting in Istanbul on March 18, followed by a political directors meeting, again in Almaty, Kazakhstan on April 5-6, negotiators from the P5+1 and Iran announced in a joint statement at the conclusion of talks Wednesday.
Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili described the Almaty meeting as “positive,” while his American and European counterparts characterized it, more cautiously, as “useful,” stressing the imperative is results, not atmospherics.
“I would say it was a useful meeting,” a senior US official told journalists Wednesday. “The day we have concrete results, I will use a different adjective.”
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, speaking at the conclusion of talks Wednesday, said she welcomed if the Iranian side “are looking positively at proposals we put forward.” But, she added, “I believe in looking at what the results are.”
The centerpiece of the two-day meeting was a presentation Tuesday by Ashton of a revised international proposal focused on curbing Iran’s 20% enrichment, suspending operations at the fortified Fordow enrichment facility, and increasing nuclear safeguards, transparency and IAEA inspections that would prevent a rapid Iranian breakout capability, the US diplomat said.
The updated offer somewhat eases demands to entirely “stop, shut and ship” its 20% stockpile made in a proposal put forward in Baghdad last May.
Unlike the past proposal, the updated one would allow Iran to keep a sufficient amount of its 20% enriched fuel to fuel a research reactor that produces isotopes to treat Iranian cancer patients, the US diplomat said.
The revised proposal also calls for “suspension of enrichment” at Fordo–rather than shuttering the fortified facility, built into a mountain in Qom– and would “constrain the ability to quickly resume operations there,” the American official said. It also calls for enhanced IAEA monitoring measures “to promote greater transparency…and provide early warning” of any attempted breakout effort, the official said.
In exchange, the proposal offers an easing of some sanctions. The US official said the proposed sanctions relief at this stage does not involve oil or financial sanctions, but other US and European Union imposed sanctions, which the official declined to specify. It would also offer to not impose new UN Security Council or European Union proliferation sanctions, as the previous offer also had. “We never regarded sanctions as an end in themselves,” the American official said.
The US official declined to say whether the updated proposal asks Iran to halt installation of more advanced centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility, that could considerably speed up Iran’s enrichment capacity.
Jalili offered rare praise for the international proposal, acknowledging it demonstrated a clear effort to respond to Iranian concerns. “We believe this is a…turning point,” he said through at a translator at a press conference Wednesday. The six parties “have moved closer to our proposal.”
There were signs over the past two days that the meeting was going well compared to earlier rounds.
Members of Iran’s negotiating team held a series of unannounced bilateral meetings with diplomats from Russia, China, and unusually Germany and the UK Tuesday night, western officials said. (Former Iranian ambassador to the UK Rasoul Movahedian-Atar, a member of Iran’s negotiating team here, met with former British ambassador to Iran Simon Gass, who now serves as the lead British negotiator at the talks, American and British diplomats said.)
The lack of aggressive Iranian posturing as the meeting got underway Tuesday hinted that Iranian negotiators may have been persuaded that the revised P5+1 proposal had moved at least some way to respond to their concerns, including in offering some sanctions relief, and that they should at least agree to study and discuss it further.
By the conclusion of talks Wednesday, it was evident that Iran had decided to spin the updated offer as a diplomatic success for Tehran, that responded to an Iranian proposal presented at a meeting in Moscow last June.
Also notable, the Iranian delegation did not hang posters of assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists on the podium before Jalili’s press conference, as it had at several earlier rounds.
Earlier in the week, on the eve of talks, Western diplomats said they would like to come to agreement here on a follow-on meeting, or series of meetings, at the expert level. A meeting of non-proliferation experts held last July in Istanbul was productive and involved more US-Iran interactions, American officials said Monday.
Lead US negotiator at the talks, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, travels Thursday to Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to brief Middle East allies and GCC states about the Iran consultations and other matters.
(Pool Photo, via NYT.)
via Iran, world powers agree to new nuclear talks in Istanbul, Almaty | The Back Channel.
The Arms Control Association’s Kelsey Davenport summarizes a case made by a Turkish professor of international relations for Turkey to be included in the p5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany):
Despite the failure of the Tehran Declaration, Turkey’s experience negotiating with Iran lends strength to [Mustafa] Kibaroglu’s argument for Turkey’s inclusion. Ankara demonstrated it can work with Tehran. Additionally, in June 2010 Turkey was one of two countries that voted against UN Security Council Resolution 1929, which imposed sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with early resolutions regarding its nuclear program. Given the animosity spurred on by the current sanctions, Iran may be more willing to work with Turkey than the members of the P5+1.
In addition, Kibaroglu reminds us that Israel is not the only Middle Eastern country that would be threatened by Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and that other regional perspectives on the security environment need to be considered. According to him, a nuclear armed Iran would be the “game changer” that affects the relationship between the two countries and tips the balance of power in Iran’s favor.
While Turkish inclusion in the P5+1 may not be the creative solution that revives the negotiations with Iran, Kibaroglu’s recommendations serve as an important reminder that there is no “one size fits all” formula for diplomatic negotiations. If the current P5+1 track does not achieve a breakthrough, it does not mean that negotiations have failed. Rather, that it is time for diplomats to get creative and consider alternative options, such as exploiting the good offices of new parties, to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear question.
For assessing how Iran may respond to Turkey’s inclusion in the P5+1, read Iran expert Farideh Farhi’s recent analysis of Iran-Turkey relations.
via Should Turkey be included in the P5+1? « LobeLog.com.
Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Iran has offered to stop enriching uranium to a purity level of 20 percent if the West lifts sanctions against Tehran, semi- official Mehr news agency reported Wednesday.
Soltanieh said that the offer was made in a meeting between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Istanbul earlier this month.
“We are prepared to suspend enrichment to 20 percent, provided that we find a reciprocal step compatible with it,” Soltanieh was quoted as saying.
“We said this in Istanbul,” he said, adding that “If we do that, there shouldn’t be sanctions.”
On Sept. 18, Ashton met with Iranian officials in Istanbul in a bid to end the standoff over the Iranian nuclear program. Jalili said the two sides were satisfied with what they had agreed during the talks.
On Wednesday, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari said the Iranian enemies have resorted to economic sanctions and pressures since they have realized that they cannot engage in direct confrontation with the Islamic republic, semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Jafari said the enemies have found out that their actions against Iran have backfired and the Islamic revolution has been exported to the world nations against their will.
The Israelis still continue their threats, but at the same time they have realized that they cannot fight the Islamic revolution through a direct battle, Jafari said, adding that, for that reason they have resorted to exaggerating the social problems of our country and the Islamic ruling system.
“Today, the world has found out that threatening the Islamic revolution is futile, yet those who are less wise and rational have still resorted to other methods such as different sanctions and political threats,” Jafari was quoted as saying.
Also, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the imposition of sanctions by the global hegemony indicates its weakness in dealing with independent nations, Press TV reported on Wednesday.
“Sanctions and the exertion of pressure by the global arrogance and bullying powers against independent nations are not indicative of a position of power but rather the weakness of these countries in dealing with the logic of the independent states,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a meeting with his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales on the sidelines of the 67th UN General Assembly.
“The enemies of the independent nations know better than anyone else that these pressures and sanctions will lead nowhere,” he added.
China on Wednesday reiterated its opposition to sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.
“The Chinese side has long been opposed to any unilateral sanctions on Iran,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.
He added that sanctions cannot ultimately help to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, but will only further worsen and escalate the issue, “which will do no good in regional peace and stability. ”
All sides concerned should increase dialogues and boost cooperation to seek an appropriate solution to the issue through negotiations, said the spokesman.
On Wednesday, Iranian deputy nuclear negotiator Ali Baqeri said that Iran insists on its “nuclear rights,” semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
The Islamic republic persists the total vindication of its rights to enjoy all the capacities for peaceful nuclear technology, Baqeri was quoted as saying.
During the meeting between Jalili and Ashton in Istanbul last week, Iran offered some proposals, reiterated its insistence on the nuclear rights and demanded Ashton’s response, Baqeri said.
“Due to Iran’s clear logic in its proposals, it is now the turn of the P5+1 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — to respond to these proposals,” said the Iranian official.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, and warned that it will retaliate if it comes under an attack.
Iranian nuclear talks in June ended without a breakthrough, while the P5+1 are expected to discuss with Tehran on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly in New York.
via Iran to Give up 20 pct Uranium Enrichment if West Lifts Sanctions.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili pose for cameras before their meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. (Tolga Adanali, Pool Photo / April 14, 2012)
The first formal negotiations between Iran and a six-nation contact group, including America and Britain, for over a year ended with agreement that diplomats will prepare concrete proposals for resolving the impasse.
Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, took the unusual step of commending his adversaries at the conclusion of the session in Istanbul.
“Today, we saw a positive approach and we consider it a step forward,” he said. “For the Iranian people, the language of pressure doesn’t work, but the language of co-operation could be fruitful. Today, we witnessed such an approach.”
Mr Jalili, an often irascible hardliner, adopted a very different tone during his last encounter with the “P5 plus 1”, consisting of the five permanent members of the Security Council – America, Britain, Russia, France and China – along with Germany.
On that occasion last January, he declined to even talk about Iran’s nuclear programme unless all sanctions were lifted. “Outside the room, he’s very charming and he enjoys all the photo opportunities. Inside the room, he’s a completely different character. I wouldn’t trust him with my children,” said an ex-official who observed those talks.
“He goes off on long-winded, the West is evil, anti-Western rhetoric. He could do a whole intervention in 10 minutes of monotone.”
This time, however, diplomats noted Mr Jalili’s wholly different, “calm and constructive” approach. One said: “We had a whole day talking about the nuclear issue and only the nuclear issue.”
Baroness Ashton, the European Union’s high representative for foreign policy, who chairs the “P5 plus 1”, had a three-hour dinner with Mr Jalili on Friday night. After the talks, Lady Ashton described them as “constructive and useful”, adding: “We want now to move to a sustained process of serious dialogue, where we can take urgent practical steps to build confidence and lead on to compliance by Iran with all its international obligations.”
The two sides will meet again in Baghdad on May 23. Before then, two senior negotiators will try to hammer out concrete proposals. Helga Schmid, who serves as Lady Ashton’s deputy, will represent the “P5 plus 1”, while Ali Baqeri, a senior Iranian diplomat, will speak for Tehran.
But Mr Jalili brought no specific proposals to Istanbul and the gap between the two sides remains as wide as ever. “Our delight is well within bounds: it’s beer not champagne,” said one diplomat.
Iran insists on its right to continue enriching uranium, a sensitive process that could be used to make the material for a nuclear weapon. America, Britain and the other “P5 plus 1” countries, meanwhile, want Iran to obey six United Nations resolutions and stop enrichment.
Moreover, neither side trusts the other. Mr Jalili’s tone was conciliatory, but diplomats noted that he did not bring any concrete proposals to Istanbul. Nor did he accept the offer of a one-on-one meeting with his American counterpart, Wendy Sherman.
Instead, Mr Jalili repeated Iran’s insistence on enriching uranium, saying this was a “right” under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, adding: “Any right which is included in the NPT should be respected. Enrichment of uranium is one of those rights that every member state should benefit from for peaceful purposes.”
Mr Jalili spoke in front of a banner, hastily raised by his officials, reading: “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None.” This showed a gallery of photographs of five Iranian scientists, all of them killed by bomb attacks in Tehran allegedly masterminded by Israeli intelligence.
Diplomats are alert to the danger that Iran might try to use this new diplomatic effort to buy time for its nuclear programme to progress. They are deeply worried that Israel could lose patience and launch a unilateral strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.
These dangers must impose a time limit on the new effort to settle the issue. “We can’t be messing around like this at the end of the year,” said one diplomat.
via Iran agrees to concrete proposals for resolving nuclear crisis – Telegraph.
TEHRAN (FNA)- Expert delegations from Iran and the Group 5+1 are due to meet in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday to discuss the agenda for the next round of talks between the two sides.
