Iran ‘ready for new nuclear talks’

Tehran says that it has updated its proposal ahead of a US deadline.

Javier Solana and Saeed Jalili in Genevea Iran nuclear
Previous talks on Iran's nuclear programmehave failed to resolve the issue [EPA]

“We hope a new round of talks will be held for reaching a world full of progress and justice,” he was quoted by al-Alam, Iran’s Arabic-language satellite television channel, as saying.

Iran has previously said it is ready for “constructive” talks, but has dismissed demands to halt or freeze uranium enrichment.

New proposal

The move comes just a few weeks before a deadline this month, set by Barack Obama, the US president, to accept six-party talks.

Obama had given Iran until the end of September to negotiate its nuclear enrichment activities, or face harsher sanctions.

“The simple fact that Iran is ready to come back into negotiations is a very positive note”

Paul Brannan,
senior analyst,
Institute for Science and International Security

Jalili said the package will be directed at the so called five plus one – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) plus Germany.

Alireza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran, said it was still unclear exactly what the package would contain, but it was likely Iran would attempt to soften the focus on nuclear issues.

“I think it’s far more than just a nuclear proposal package,” he said

“Iran wants to take its nuclear programme out of focus and the best way to do this would be to use Iran’s full capacity to co-operate to solve regional problems.

“Iran wants to say that we have various capacities to work with the world and with the global community, it’s not just the nuclear issue.”

It was unclear how different Iran’s updated offer in the nuclear dispute would be to previous exchanges.

‘Positive development’

Paul Brannan, a senior analyst at the Institute for Science and International Security, told Al Jazeera: “The very fact that they have come back with what they call an updated proposal is a very positive development … it gives the impression that there is new language agreeable to the so-called five plus one.

Brannan said that he detected a greater willingness to engage on both sides.

“I don’t think it would ever be fair to depict [the new proposal as a delaying tactic]. This is what the five plus one have asked of Iran and we see today Iran coming back and fulfilling that.

“So I think that we should look at the proposal … and take the simple fact that Iran is ready to come back into negotiations as a very positive note.”

Brannan added that his organisation’s analysis had said that Tehran probably had the capacity to build a nuclear weapon but, “certainly Iran has not taken the decision yet to make a nuclear weapon.”

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies