Ahmadinejad says ready for talks, blasts sanctions
Iran: Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Tehran
is ready to sit down with world powers for talks on its nuclear drive as
he downplayed the harmful effects of newly imposed sanctions.
The Islamic republic, which was already under four rounds of United
Nations sanctions, vehemently denies its nuclear programme masks an
atomic weapons drive as the West alleges, and insists it is for civilian
purposes only.
"They have this excuse that Iran is dodging negotiations while it is
not the case," the Iranian leader was quoted as say ing by state media.
"A person who has logic and has right on his side, why should (he)
refrain from negotiations?" He was implicitly responding to comments
made by Western officials urging the Islamic republic to return to
negotiations over its contested nuclear programme.
The last round of talks between Iran and the major powers consisting
of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States was
held in Turkey in January 2011, but the negotiations collapsed.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday: "The
European Union stands together in sending that clear message to the
government of Iran: that we wish to go back to negotiations, to invite
them to pick up the issues which were left on the table in Istanbul a
year ago."
The six powers are still waiting for Iran's reply to a letter Ashton
sent in October, stressing that negotiations should focus on the "key
question" of the Iranian nuclear issue, in order to remove doubts.
The United States declined to directly respond to Ahmadinejad's
comments Thursday, saying instead that Tehran should formally reply to
Ashton's letter.
"Our position is that it is as it always has been -- the Iranian
regime needs to live up to its obligations to the international
community," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air
Force One. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
said the letter "very specifically offers talks if Iran is ready to be
serious about coming clean with regard to its nuclear programme". "So
just saying you're open for talks doesn't meet the criteria that we have
set, which is to be ready for talks and ready to be serious about
letting the world know all of the details of your nuclear programme and
proving your claims that it's for peaceful purposes." Several Iranian
officials have said publicly that Tehran was ready to resume talks, but
without specifying the content of the talks, and have not yet formally
responded to Ashton's letter.
AFP
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