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Presidents of Iran, Russia talk on eve of nuclear summit

The presidents of Iran and Russia have expressed hope for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis on the eve of key talks aiming to break the deadlock, media reported yesterday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held their first telephone talks late on Friday, a day before the talks yesterday in Geneva, media reported.

“In the Geneva negotiations ... we can examine ways to make decisions in different fields and help resolve the existing issues,” the Web site of Iranian state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

CLARIFICATION

The Kremlin quoted Medvedev as urging Iran “to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] to clarify questions remaining about the Iranian nuclear program.”

“The Russian president reiterated his firm position on resolving the situation surrounding Iran’s nuclear program only by political and diplomatic means,” it said.

Russia is one of the six world powers that last month gave Iran a proposal offering it full negotiations on a range of incentives if it suspends sensitive uranium enrichment operations.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was to hold talks on the package with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva yesterday, in a meeting that for the first time will also be attended by a US envoy.

Iran’s press yesterday hailed the presence of a US diplomat at the talks, calling on Tehran’s arch foe to recognize its atomic rights.

In a major shift by Washington, US Under-secretary of State William Burns was to attend yesterday’s talks.

GLEEFUL HARDLINERS

Hardline newspapers such as Jomhouri Eslami and Kayhan, the voices of Iran’s clerical establishment, expressed glee over the US presence at the talks and interpreted it as a sign of US weakness.

“Burns’ presence at the Geneva talks emanates from the needs of the foreign policy of the United States and also shows the existence of differences among the world powers,” said Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by the supreme leader.

For Jomhouri Eslami, the shift showed that the US “is no longer a superpower and its power is fading. Their weakness showed from the beginning of the Islamic Revolution and this has intensified.”

DIPLOMATIC PRESENCE

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday that his country was open to discussing the establishment by the US of its first diplomatic presence in Tehran since relations were severed nearly three decades ago.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki welcomed as a “positive step” the administration’s decision to send a senior US official to participate in international talks with Iran this weekend, and said he expected the talks to make progress.

Speaking in Ankara, Turkey, Mottaki said there had been increased demand from Iranians and Americans for better bilateral social and business relations.

Although there has been no official confirmation, European and US officials have said the US was considering establishing a diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time since relations were ended during the 444-day occupation of the US embassy in Tehran, which started on Nov. 4, 1979.
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