Iran’s main nuclear negotiator, Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili, agreed in telephone talks on Thursday to speak again with world powers before the month is out on Tehran’s contested program, the EU’s top diplomat said.
“I proposed, and Dr Jalili agreed, that we talk again after further reflection at the end of the month,” EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Affairs Catherine Ashton said in a statement after discussing “how to move the talks with Iran on the nuclear issue forward.”
She did not say if these next talks would be face-to-face or by telephone, but said: “I impressed the need for Iran now to address the issues we have raised in order to build confidence.”
Working on behalf of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US, Ashton is trying to elevate dialogue with Tehran into a stable exchange after tortuous stop-start diplomacy. The planned contact will follow face-to-face talks between the pair’s respective deputies in Istanbul in Turkey last week.
Ashton said she had “explored diplomatic ways to resolve international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program,” which Israel and the West suspect is a cover for efforts to build an atomic bomb, a charge denied by Iran.
The so-called P5+1 group she represents has told Iran to immediately stop enriching uranium to the 20 percent level, to ship out its existing 20 percent stock and to shut down a fortified underground enrichment facility.
Experts say uranium must be enriched to 90 percent purity to make nuclear bombs, but that 20 percent purity is a key stage in paving the way toward that capacity.
Iran insists it has a right to uranium enrichment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and wants Western sanctions on its economy to be eased.
The US Congress on Wednesday approved punishing new sanctions targeting Iran’s energy and shipbuilding sectors, amid deliberation over a possible first strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that “all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian program by one iota.”
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the