Iran says it, world powers must end nuclear stalemate

Iran's foreign minister said on Monday a way must be found to end the deadlock with major powers over its nuclear programme, an Iranian news agency reported, but he offered no new initiative on how to achieve this.   

Ali Akbar Salehi's comments came ahead of an expected resumption of diplomacy, perhaps next month, aimed at preventing the decade-old nuclear dispute from degenerating into a Middle East war that could damage an already fragile world economy.   

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, has threatened military action to prevent its arch-enemy from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such goal and says it would hit back hard if attacked.   

"The two sides (Iran and world powers) have reached a conclusion that they must exit the current stalemate," Salehi was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency.   

The West suspects Iran is trying to develop the means to build atomic bombs under the cover of a declared civilian nuclear energy programme. The Islamic Republic says it is enriching uranium as fuel for civilian energy, not bombs.   

Iran and the six powers - the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain and Germany - have expressed readiness to revive efforts to find a negotiated solution. But Salehi said he did not know when the next meeting would be held.   

The powers, known as P5+1, said last week they hoped soon to agree with Iran on when and where to meet. There have been suggestions it could happen already this month, though January now seems more likely, Western officials say.   

Analysts and diplomats believe there is a window of opportunity for a new diplomatic initiative with Iran after last month's re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama.   

The powers want Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment programme and cooperate fully with U.N. nuclear inspectors.   

The priority for Iran, a major oil producer, is for the West to lift punitive sanctions increasingly hurting its economy.   

Three rounds of negotiations earlier this year - the last one in Moscow in June - failed to achieve a breakthrough.   

The big powers have prepared an updated version of package that was rejected by Tehran in the previous talks, Western diplomats say, without giving details.   

Their immediate priority is for Iran to halt higher-grade enrichment that could relatively quickly be further processed to bomb-grade material, close the Fordow underground plant where this work is carried out and ship out the stockpile.  


REUTERS