Iran’s top nuclear negotiator yesterday confirmed that an agreement had been struck with the EU official representing world powers negotiating with Tehran on the content of upcoming talks in Moscow.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had a telephone conversation late on Monday, Jalili’s office said in a statement reported by Iranian state media.
According to the statement, the talks in Moscow on Monday and Tuesday next week will focus on points made by Iran and by the P5+1 group (the US, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany) in a previous round in Baghdad late May.
Jalili told Ashton he “will explicitly talk about Iran’s five-point proposals” in Moscow and that “an appropriate response by the P5+1 to the [Iranian] proposals can help advance the talks.”
On Monday, Ashton said she had reached an agreement with Jalili on the content of the Moscow meeting after the hour-long phone conversation.
The two “agreed on the need for Iran to engage on the E3+3 (P5+1) proposals, which address its concerns on the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme,” Ashton’s office said in a statement.
She also conveyed the group was ready to respond to the “issues” raised by the Iranians in the Baghdad meeting, the statement said, without elaborating.
The announcement was preceded by a meeting in Strasbourg of the political directors of the P5+1. The Western nations in the P5+1 and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, suspect Iran has conducted research toward developing nuclear weapons.
Iran denies that accusation and claims it is being unfairly treated by the West under the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It says its activities are solely for peaceful purposes.
The Moscow round follows two earlier unproductive meetings since early April, in Istanbul and in Baghdad, which failed to yield results in efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear activities.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese