Nuclear talks with Iran leave Ashton disappointed

Istanbul: Talks between world powers and Iran ended Saturday without progress in tackling concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said no more are planned.

"I am disappointed," said Ashton after two days of talks in Istanbul between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group of countries, whose delegation she headed.

"No new talks have been planned... It remains essential that Iran demonstrates that its nuclear programme is peaceful," she said.
The P5+1 group comprises Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - the permanent members of the UN Security Council - plus Germany.

The Iranians were led by the country's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who was scheduled to hold a separate press conference.

Iran set the stage for a difficult round of negotiations as soon as the meetings began Friday, insisting that its sensitive uranium enrichment work was not up for debate.

Western sources familiar with the talks had said the Iranians insisted on a recognition of their right to enrich uranium and the lifting of international sanctions as a pre-condition for talks on a possible nuclear fuel swap, but the powers rejected any preconditions.

Earlier Saturday, the so-called Vienna Group, comprising France, Russia and the United States, met with Iran "to explore if we can get traction on a revised TRR or other practical confidence-building measures," a Western official said, referring to the proposed nuclear fuel swap deal.

The powers believe the scheme, first discussed in 2009, could ease suspicions that Tehran is secretly developing an atomic bomb.
Under its original draft, Iran would have received fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran from France and Russia in return for shipping out most of its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium.

After a prolonged stalemate, Brazil and Turkey brokered a modified deal with Iran in May.

But the United States rejected that accord, arguing it had failed to take into account additional uranium Iran enriched in the meantime, and led the UN Security Council in imposing a fourth package of sanctions.

The powers are known to be looking into a modified version of the proposal to take into account Iran's growing stockpile of low-enriched uranium.

The Western official praised "strong P5+1 unity" which "Iranians tested and then realised they could not fray."

The Istanbul gathering was the second round of talks between Iran and the powers after talks resumed last month in Geneva, breaking a 14-month hiatus in diplomatic efforts to dispel concerns that Tehran is secretly developing an atomic bomb.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, but has refused to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which can be used to make nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Its defiance has prompted four sets of UN sanctions, coupled by a series of sanctions imposed unilaterally by the United States and the EU.

Washington believes the sanctions have already started to hamper Tehran's nuclear activities.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week the sanctions had "made it much more difficult for Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions" and forced it to "slow down its timetable."

But leading US scientists Friday warned against Western complacency, saying in a study that Tehran last year boosted its capacity to build a bomb.