World powers and Iran met in Moscow yesterday for talks intended to narrow differences over Tehran’s nuclear program and avert the danger of a new war in the Middle East, diplomats said.
The six powers — the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — hope to persuade Iran to curb production of high-grade uranium they suspect is a step towards making nuclear weapons.
Iran, which denies its nuclear programme has military purposes, has refused to do so until the six powers publicly acknowledge that it has the right to carry out work.
Tehran also wants relief from economic sanctions with new US and EU limitations threatening to start in the next two weeks.
“Talks have started,” said a diplomat involved in the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Western diplomats have said a breakthrough is unlikely at the Moscow meeting, the third such talks since diplomacy over the issue resumed after a 15-month hiatus in April.
As efforts to move talks forward continue, Iran is ready to suspend its controversial 20 percent uranium enrichment program if Europe guarantees the delivery of nuclear fuel for its reactors, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a message on his official Web site.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always said that, if the European countries give Iran 20 percent [enriched uranium] fuel, Iran will not carry out enrichment to that level,” he was quoted as saying in a text on the Web site published late on Sunday.
Iran insists enrichment is its right under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and that, even if it is ready to negotiate on 20 percent enrichment, lower-level enrichment will still continue.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in