Tehran ready for fresh nuclear talks
IRAN: Iran said it had delayed planned long-range missile tests in the Gulf yesterday and signalled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its disputed nuclear programme.
Tensions between Iran and the West have been growing since EU leaders said they wanted tougher sanctions against Tehran by the end of next month in a bid to force it to curb a research programme that they suspect is developing nuclear weapons.
Iran responded by warning it could shut the Strait of Hormuz if the EU imposed sanctions on its oil exports and launched 10 days of naval war games in the Gulf as a show of strength, rattling oil markets and pushing up the price of crude.
The US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in a waterway through which 40 per cent of the world’s oil passes.
In the past, Iran has threatened to close the waterway only if attacked by the United States and Israel.
Analysts say that Iran, already under pressure from four rounds of UN sanctions, is playing for time and that Tehran’s increasingly strident rhetoric shows its clerical leadership is concerned about even harsher penalties.
Against this backdrop, Iran’s state media reported yesterday that long-range missiles had been launched during the naval exercises.
But Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi later went on the English language Press TV channel to deny they had in fact been fired: ‘‘The exercise of launching missiles will be carried out in the coming days.’’
Separately, Iranian media reported that nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili would write to the EU foreign policy chief to say Iran was ready for fresh talks on its nuclear programme, which it says is aimed at power generation.
‘‘Jalili will soon send a letter to Catherine Ashton over the format of negotiations . . . then fresh talks will take place with major powers,’’ the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Iran’s am- bassador to Germany, Sheikh Attar, as saying.
Negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – plus Germany stalled in January.
Ashton, leading the European negotiators, wrote to Jalili in October and has not yet had a reply, her spokesman Michael Mann said. But the bloc was open to meaningful talks with Tehran:
‘‘We continue to pursue our twin-track approach and are open
Alireza for meaningful discussions on confidence-building measures, without preconditions from the Iranian side.’’
A US Administration official added: ‘‘We have indicated for years that we are willing to engage in talks with Iran, provided it is ready to engage in a meaningful and constructive fashion.’’
Iranian analyst Hamid Farahvashian said Tehran was seeking to send a message to the West that it should think twice about the economic cost of putting pressure on Iran.