Islamic republic says it has notified UN of its intention to resume negotiations amid confusion over reported missile tests
- guardian.co.uk,
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili says his country is ready to return to the table. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA
Iran has proposed to reopen negotiations about its controversial nuclear programme with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
The invitation by Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, comes in the wake of new sanctions recently imposed by the UN over Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme.
The last round of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN security council and Germany – held in Istanbul in January – ended in failure.
“We formally declared to them [the intent] to return to the path of dialogue for cooperation,” Jalili told Iranian diplomats in Tehran, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Iran’s ambassador to Germany, Ali Reza Sheikh Attar, said earlier on Saturday that Jalili would write to the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to arrange a new round of talks.
The proposal for new negotiations came as there were conflicting reports as to whether Iran had tested long-range missiles during naval exercises in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s state media initially reported early on Saturday that missiles had been launched – a move likely to worry the west, which is concerned over threats by Tehran to close a vital oil shipping route.
But Iranian deputy navy commander Mahmoud Mousavi later told Press TV that no missiles had been fired. “The exercise of launching missiles will be carried out in the coming days,” he told the channel, owned by the state Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation.
The UN has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Tehran over the nuclear enrichment, while the US and the EU have also imposed their own sanctions.
Earlier in December, Iran reinstated an offer for the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit Tehran, although it did not say whether officials would be able to focus on suspicions that Iran is secretly working on nuclear arms – a key condition set by the agency.
The US and Israel have not ruled out a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran doesn’t stop its nuclear programme. Jalili warned that any attack on Iran would be met with retaliation. “We will give a response that will make the aggressor regret any threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
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