Iranian and European negotiators met in secrecy here on Friday to seek agreement over Iran's nuclear program, and Iranian leaders increased pressure for a quick deal to permit them to resume enriching uranium for nuclear fuel.
Despite the tough talk from figures in Tehran, including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, officials from both sides said the talks on Friday night were unlikely to reach any kind of breakthrough.
Negotiations
The US and Europe have pushed Iran to renounce all uranium enrichment as a guarantee against a clandestine program to make weapons-grade uranium.
Under international pressure, Iran has suspended its uranium enrichment program and has been negotiating with Britain, France and Germany over the future of the program. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is exclusively for electric power generation.
Sanctions possible
The US has warned that if Iran ends the talks and resumes enrichment, Washington will seek action from the UN Security Council, possibly leading to economic sanctions.
The Europeans have taken a less confrontational tack, seeking to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program in return for economic concessions.
On the Iranian side, however, the issue has been wrapped up in the country's looming presidential elections on June 17, and European diplomats say they fear that recent Iranian statements may reflect political posturing.
US opposition
Iran is seeking European assent to a small experimental enrichment program, but both the Europeans and the US oppose the idea.
In Tehran on Friday, Rafsanjani said Iran was "determined to have all branches of nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment, and we will have it at any cost," according to reports.
Rafsanjani's words echoed remarks on Thursday by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, who said, "If talks with European Union are not successful tomorrow, negotiations will collapse, and we will have no choice but to restart the uranium enrichment program."
Low expectations
But the senior officials from both sides who are conducting the talks seemed anxious to play down any high expectations from the London encounter.
The head of the Iranian negotiators, Muhammad Javad Zarif, citing remarks by other Iranian officials, said: "We engage in these talks in order to make a deal, and not to break one. We are hoping for tangible progress on reaching an agreement."
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
LEFT AND RIGHT: Battling anti-incumbent, anticommunist sentiment, Jeanette Jara had a precarious lead over far-right Jose Antonio Kast as they look to the Dec. 14 run Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast are to go head-to-head in Chile’s presidential runoff after topping Sunday’s first round of voting in an election dominated by fears of violent crime. With 99 percent of the results counted, Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of an eight-party coalition, won 26.85 percent, compared with 23.93 percent for Kast, the Servel electoral service said. The election was dominated by deep concern over a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion widely blamed on foreign crime gangs. Kast, 59, has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to
DEATH SENTENCE: The ousted leader said she was willing to attend a fresh trial outside Bangladesh where the ruling would not be a ‘foregone conclusion’ Bangladesh’s fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called the guilty verdict and death sentence in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated.” Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that ousted her. She was found guilty and sentenced to death earlier yesterday. “The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement issued from hiding in India. “They are biased and politically motivated,” she
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
RSS