World powers said yesterday that mooted talks with Iran must be “serious” and urged Teheran to allow UN inspectors access to a military base thought to be central to its suspected nuclear weapons drive.
“We call on Iran to enter, without preconditions, into a sustained process of serious dialogue, which will produce concrete results,” said a statement from the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, known as the P5+1.
They added that their readiness to negotiate was “on the understanding that these talks will address the international community’s long-standing concerns and that there will be serious discussions on concrete confidence building measures”.
The statement was read out by China’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, at a closed-door regular board meeting at its Vienna headquarters.
On Tuesday EU foreign policy representative Catherine Ashton said on behalf of the six powers that they were ready to hold talks with Iran.
No date or location have been agreed but Washington’s envoy Robert Wood to the IAEA told reporters he expected the talks to happen “in the coming few months.”
Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani warned on Wednesday that the talks would fail if they were used to “pressure” Teheran.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday that in the talks Washington “will demand that Iran live up to its international obligations – that it provides verifiable assurances it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon.”
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday he was “sceptical” about Iran’s readiness to talk about its nuclear activities, accusing Tehran of “double talk.”
Germany said yesterday Iran had to “make use” of this “opportunity”.
The possible resumption comes despite an apparent deadlock between the IAEA and Iran over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme after two visits to Tehran in January and February.
The visits saw Iran again reject a major IAEA report in November outlining a host of suspicious nuclear activities and deny access to the Parchin military site where explosives testing for warhead research allegedly took place.