Ahmadinejad: Iran ready for new talks
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran is ready to revive talks with the United States and other world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday, but suggested that Tehran's foes will have to make compromises to prevent negotiations from again collapsing in stalemate.
Iran's insistence that it will never give up uranium enrichment -- the process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons -- scuttled negotiations a year ago and still looms as a potential deal-breaker even as tougher Western sanctions target Iran's critical oil exports.
Ahmadinejad added his voice to proposals by Iranian officials to return to talks at a rally in the southeastern city of Kerman, saying a nation that is in the "right" should not be worried about holding dialogue.
Iran indicated earlier this week that it was ready for a new round of talks with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. Ahmadinejad gave no further details about a potential timetable or venue.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, had welcomed the proposals to restart talks but urged Tehran to bring "some concrete issues to talk about."
"It is very important that it is not just about words," she said Monday in Brussels as the 27-nation bloc adopted its toughest measures yet on Iran with an oil embargo and freeze of the country's central bank assets. That followed U.S. action also aimed at limiting Iran's ability to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue.
In the past, Iran has angered Western officials by appearing to buy time through opening talks while pressing ahead with its nuclear program.
Britain's Foreign Office said that the six world powers were awaiting a response to a letter sent to Tehran by Ashton in October.
"The door is open, if Iran is willing to talk about its nuclear program in a serious and meaningful manner, without preconditions," a spokesman for the ministry said.
The United States and its allies want Iran to halt uranium enrichment, which they worry could lead to production of nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.
