New York: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany have offered Iran another chance to enter negotiations over its suspect nuclear program, seeking a quick resolution to the long-running dispute.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia met on Wednesday to try to find a solution to the deadlock. They urged Iran to come to the table for a new round of talks, and said it remained essential for Iran to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.
"We reaffirmed our determination and commitment to seek an early negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and focused our discussion on further practical steps to achieve it at an early date," the ministers said.
"Our objective continues to be a comprehensive long-term negotiated solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature" of Iran's nuclear program, while "respecting Iran's legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," they said.
Iran has defied several rounds of increasingly restrictive economic sanctions aimed at compelling Tehran to prove it is not building a nuclear weapons program. Iran adamantly denies accusations from the U.S. and its allies that it seeks atomic arms.
Talks with Tehran reached a stalemate months ago, after Iranian officials tried to re-negotiate an agreement to ship most of its low enriched uranium out of the country, to be turned into fuel for a research reactor.
The U.S. and others fear Iran could try to process its low enriched uranium into highly enriched uranium, which could be used to make an atomic weapon.
In their meeting on Wednesday, Clinton and the other ministers said they still wanted to engage with Iran on fuel for its research reactor.
"We look forward to Iran's positive and constructive participation in this dialogue," they said.
