* Iranian media say talks to be held in Istanbul
* Turkish PM says won’t comment as not yet confirmed
* Israel to accept focus on 20-pct enrichment as first
priority
* U.S., allies want end to high-level enrichment
* Iran’s Ahmadinejad says must continue on nuclear path
(Adds quotes from U.S. official, Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Turkish
PM Erdogan)
By Dan Williams and Marcus George
JERUSALEM/DUBAI, April 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. and its allies
are pressing for an end to Iran’s high-level uranium enrichment
and the closure of a facility built deep under a mountain as
talks on Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West resume this
week.
Iranian media said the talks, which collapsed more than a
year ago, would be held in Tehran on Friday.
A return to the table, after more than a year of tightening
sanctions over what the West believes is a programme to develop
nuclear weapons, had been in doubt after Iran and the P5+1
countries – the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China
and Germany – released conflicting statements about the venue.
Tehran had earlier voiced concerns about holding them in
Turkey, whose opposition to Iranian ally President Bashar
al-Assad in Syria has angered the Islamic Republic.
“After weeks of debates, Iran and the six world powers
agreed to attend a first meeting in Istanbul,” the semi-official
Fars news agency reported, citing unnamed sources. State-run
English language Press TV carried the same report.
The Fars news agency also said the sides had agreed to a
second round of talks in Baghdad if there was progress in
Turkey. There was no immediate comment on the venue from the
world powers.
Turkey’s NTV news quoted Turkish prime minister Tayyip
Erdogan as saying: “It wouldn’t be appropriate to make a
statement on an issue that hasn’t been confirmed. As soon it’s
confirmed, we will immediately share this with you.”
Getting Iran to suspend high-level uranium enrichment and
close a nuclear facility built deep under a mountain near the
holy city of Qom are “near-term priorities” for the United
States and its allies, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.
The New York Times said the United States and other Western
nations planned to demand Iran immediately close and ultimately
dismantle the Fordow facility and also would call for a halt in
the production of 20-percent enriched uranium.
The U.S. official told Reuters “20 percent and closing
Fordow are near-term priorities” for the Obama administration
and its international partners in dealing with Iran.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for power generation and
producing isotopes for medical purposes, but the U.N. Security
Council has demanded a full suspension of enrichment, both to
the 20 percent and the 3.5 percent level.
Iran has enough 3.5 and 20 percent-enriched uranium for
around four bombs if refined further to about 90-percent purity,
Western experts say.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel, which has also demanded an end to
all enrichment and has threatened attacks on its arch-foe’s
nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails, signalled it would
accept, as a first priority, the Western powers focusing on
stopping 20-percent enrichment.
“We told our American friends, as well as the Europeans,
that we would have expected the threshold for successful
negotiations to be clear, namely that the P5+1 will demand
clearly that – no more enrichment to 20 percent,” Israeli
Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with CNN’s
Fareed Zakaria GPS to be aired on Sunday.
Iran’s stocks of 20 percent-pure uranium should be removed
“to a neighbouring, trusted country”, Barak said, according to
an advance transcript of the interview.
EASE THE DEADLOCK
While Iran says it has a sovereign right to peaceful nuclear
technology, it has at times appeared more flexible regarding 20
percent enrichment, which it began in early 2010, and some
experts say that initially getting Iran to stop this
higher-grade work could open a way to ease the deadlock.
It is not clear what Iran would expect in return, but an
easing of some of the sanctions, which include an oil embargo by
the European Union, might be among them.
Asked about Barak’s comments to CNN, another Israeli
official confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
government was focusing lobbying efforts on Iran’s 20-percent
pure uranium, but said the long-term goal remained the ending of
all its enrichment work.
“The understanding that has emerged in our contacts with the
powers is that there should be a staggered approach,” the
official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
There was scant encouragement from Iran to signal it was
ready for concessions.
In an address on Iran’s annual day to celebrate its nuclear
achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Western
powers that Iran would continue its pursue swift scientific
progress.
“The nuclear industry is like a locomotive that can carry
other industries along with it. It is like the space industry
that has raised tens of sub-industries under it and it is clear
that we must continue on this path,” the Iranian state news
agency quoted him as saying.
“You are blind if you think you can block scientific growth
in Iran by martyring Iranian scientists,” he added referring to
the killing of four Iranian scientists since 2010. “Don’t think
you can stop this roaring river, and know that if you
assassinate one scientist, hundreds and thousands will take his
place.
The head of its parliamentary committee for national
security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said late on
Saturday that despite the climate of threats and sanctions, Iran
was proficient in all stages of enrichment from mining raw
uranium in Iranian mines, producing yellow cake (concentrated
uranium powder), to building centrifuges and injecting uranium
gas into them.
In February Iran announced it had loaded domestically made
fuel rods into the Tehran Research Reactor, which produces radio
isotopes for medical use and agriculture.
International sanctions are aimed at depriving the regime of
funds and technology to further the nuclear programme and are
squeezing its vital oil exports and government finances.
(Writing by Will Waterman; Editing by Giles Elgood)
