President Ahmadinejad says Iran is ready to talk
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 5:49:20 by Hamza Jahangir
Iran is ready to revive talks with the world powers, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said, as toughening sanctions aim at forcing Tehran to sharply scale back its nuclear program. Even so, he insisted that the pressures will not force
Iran to give up its demands, including to continue enriching uranium that led to the collapse of dialogue last year.
The United States and its allies want Iran to halt making nuclear fuel, which they worry could eventually lead to weapons-grade material and the production of nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes — generating
electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.
The 27-member European Union imposed an oil embargo against Iran on Monday, part of sanctions to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the country’s nuclear program. It follows U.S. action also aimed at limiting Iran’s ability
to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue.
No date is set for the possible resumption of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany. Negotiations ended in stalemate in January 2011, and Iran later rejected a plan to send its stockpile
of low-enriched uranium abroad in exchange for reactor-ready fuel rods.
Iran had previously indicated that it is ready for a new round of talks. Ahmadinejad is the highest-ranking official to make the offer. He accused the West of trying to scuttle negotiations as a way to further squeeze Iran.
“It is you who come up with excuses each time and issue resolutions on the verge of talks so that negotiations collapse,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Kerman in south-eastern Iran. “Why should we shun talks? Why and how should
a party that has logic and is right shun talks? It is evident that those who resort to coercion are opposed to talks and always bring pretexts and blame us instead.”
A senior U.N. nuclear agency team is expected to visit Tehran on Saturday, the first such mission since a report in November that alleged Iran conducted secret weapons-related tests and that Tehran was on the brink of developing
a nuclear weapon.
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=11292
Posted by Hamza Jahangir
on Jan 31 2012. Filed under Latest News.
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