wall street journal
EUROPE NEWS
NOVEMBER 12, 2010, 1:53 P.M. ET
NOVEMBER 12, 2010, 1:53 P.M. ET
By MARC CHAMPION
ISTANBUL—Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy representative, said Friday she had accepted an Iranian proposal to start a new round of talks about the country's nuclear fuel program on Dec. 5 but that she didn't want to hold them in Turkey.
The statement from Ms. Ashton appeared to end more that a week of speculation over when the talks would take place, although the location remains uncertain.
"For the first meeting, Catherine Ashton's preference is that the first meeting take place somewhere else in Europe and has proposed Austria or Switzerland," the statement said. Ms. Ashton proposed Vienna as a venue once before but got no response from Tehran.
Ms. Ashton represents the five members of the United Nations Security Council—the U.S., Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom—plus Germany in the talks. Tehran has been pressing for negotiations to be held in Turkey, but that proposal has met resistance. Ankara voted against the latest round of sanctions in the Security Council in June, causing resentment in Washington and some European capitals.
Iran has been in European Union led talks over its once secret nuclear fuel program since 2003. The U.S. and other major powers believe the program is designed to give Iran a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says the program is purely civilian and legal under the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory.
The U.S. and EU governments want Iran to suspend the program, but they have had little success and in the meantime Iran has developed a uranium enrichment capacity. Trust between the two sides remains at a low level. This week the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. General Assembly that Iran had not cooperated sufficiently with the IAEA for its nuclear program to be certified as peaceful, and called for Iran to give international inspectors greater powers and access.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad declined, according to Iran's state broadcaster, saying that would be tantamount to handing over secrets to the U.S.
Turkey has opposed using sanctions against Iran. Together with Brazil, Ankara earlier this year negotiated an agreement under which Tehran would send part of its civilian grade uranium stockpile to Turkey for safekeeping, while higher-grade fuel rods were manufactured abroad and delivered in exchange. The U.S. had backed such a deal, but disagreed with Ankara over whether the deal was sufficient to avert further sanctions.
Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com
wall street journal
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