ANKARA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Iran has proposed either Nov. 23 or Dec. 5 as the date for planned talks with major powers on its nuclear program in Istanbul, local media reported.
Iranian officials had two proposals on the date of the negotiations with the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany (G5+1) and were waiting for a response, Erdogan was quoted by the semi-official Anatolia news agency as saying.
Iranian media reported Tuesday that Iran sent an official letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday and proposed the date and place for talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted by local Mehr news agency as saying they were considering Nov. 15 as the date.
Erdogan said the Iran nuclear issue could come up during his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G20 summit, which is due on Thursday and Friday in South Korea.
In October, Ashton said in Brussels that Iran has announced readiness to resume talks over the nuclear program after Nov. 10, which had been suspended since October 2009 when the two sides met in Geneva.
Iran has reiterated that its potential upcoming talks with G5+1 will not only include the country’s controversial nuclear issue, but should encompass diverse range of global issues which are of interests for both sides.
Western countries have called on Tehran to halt its sensitive nuclear program, but the country ruled out the calls and repeated that its nuclear activities aim at civilian purposes.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
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