Iran wants quick restart to EU nuke talks-diplomats

Louis Charbonneau, Reuters:

Iran does not want a two-month delay in talks with the European Union aimed at resolving the standoff over Tehran's atomic ambitions but wants negotiations to resume immediately, EU diplomats said on Friday.

Iranian negotiators agreed in Geneva last week to continue a temporary suspension of sensitive nuclear activities agreed last November, pending approval by Iran's leaders.

In return, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany promised to provide Iran with detailed proposals by the end of July or early August on how the EU would keep its side of that bargain and provide economic and political incentives.

But Iran does not want to wait that long, diplomats said.

"They are not happy with July or August," a diplomat from one of the three European countries told Reuters. READ MORE

"It has to be much quicker and they want the working groups to start at once more or less, plus a steering committee meeting in four to six weeks, and a part of the package has to be (uranium) enrichment," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

There are three Iran-EU workings groups dealing with political, economic, technological and nuclear issues. The steering committee consists of senior Foreign Ministry officials.

Sharing U.S. suspicions that Iran might be trying to develop nuclear weapons, the Europeans repeated to the Iranians in Geneva that they want Iran to give up its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for economic and political incentives.

But Iran says its programme is peaceful and has so far refused to give up enrichment, which can produce fuel for atomic power plants or weapons, insisting it is a sovereign right guaranteed by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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Senior Iranian negotiator Hossein Mousavian told the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany the response of Iran's top religious and political leaders on Thursday.

"The Iranians agreed that we should continue talking but they want to keep up the momentum," a diplomat said. "They don't want to wait."

An Iranian news report made it clear that Tehran had not rejected the European proposal but gave no details.

"The Islamic Republic did not respond negatively to the European Union, but conveyed its views to the European side," Iran's ILNA news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying.