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Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume This Month Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume This Month
(about 4 hours later)
LONDON — Breaking a deadlock over the location and timing of new talks on its disputed nuclear program, Iran said Tuesday it had reached agreement with world powers to resume the stuttering dialogue later this month in Kazakhstan. WASHINGTON — Breaking a deadlock over the location and timing of new talks on its disputed nuclear program, Iran has agreed to resume its stuttering dialogue with world powers later this month in Kazakhstan, Iranian and Western officials said on Tuesday.
The agreement to meet there on Feb. 26 came in a telephone conversation between senior officials of Iran’s National Security Council and the European Union, representing the outside powers involved in the talks, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said. The agreement to meet in Almaty on Feb. 26 follows the imposition of punishing sanctions by the United States and its allies that has led to the devaluation of Iran’s currency.
. There is a general sense among experts that 2013 will be a make or break year for the negotiations. President Obama has repeatedly said that he will not allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state and indicated that military action is an option.
The news agency report followed remarks by Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, who said on Sunday that his country was open to a renewed offer of direct talks with the United States on its nuclear program and that it looked favorably on a proposal for a new round of multilateral nuclear negotiations in late February in Kazakhstan. William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said Tuesday, “The need to make progress is increasingly urgent.” His statement said “Iran continues to enrich uranium in contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions and on a scale that has no plausible civilian explanation.”
IRNA did not immediately allude to the prospect of direct talks with the United States. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered such discussions last weekend in what Mr. Salehi described as “a step forward.” But it was unclear whether the American representative in the multilateral negotiations, Wendy R. Sherman, the under secretary for political affairs at the State Department, would have a one-on-one meeting in Kazakhstan with Saeed Jalili, the Iranian chief negotiator.Iran’s negotiation team last met with the outside powers — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — for high-level talks in Moscow in June. The powers are represented by the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who had suggested resumed talks on Feb. 25 to 26 in Kazakhstan. Mr. Hague said that the world powers would present Iran with an “updated and credible offer,” but provided no details on the proposal.
At the last encounter, Iran demanded the lifting of ever-tightening international economic sanctions as a precondition for discussions about reducing or eliminating its growing inventory of enriched uranium. Iran’s negotiating team last met with the outside powers —the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — for high-level talks in Moscow in June, which ended in frustration.
At that encounter, Iran demanded the lifting of ever-tightening international economic sanctions as a precondition for discussions about reducing or eliminating its growing inventory of enriched uranium.
But the outside powers want Iran to suspend its enrichment program and satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, that it does not have a nuclear weapons program.But the outside powers want Iran to suspend its enrichment program and satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, that it does not have a nuclear weapons program.
Iran denies Western accusations that its nuclear program is designed to provide access to the technology for nuclear weapons. Iran denies Western accusations that its nuclear program is intended to provide access to the technology for nuclear weapons.
The Moscow talks ended in such mistrust and frustration that the negotiators did not commit to another high-level encounter. At the same time, Iran told the I.A.E.A. last week that it plans to install more sophisticated centrifuges at its principal nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz, enabling it to greatly accelerate processing of uranium. Outside nuclear negotiations experts have suggested that Iran purposely timed that announcement to increase its diplomatic leverage at the coming talks.
Last week Iran told the I.A.E.A. at its headquarters in Vienna that it plans to install more sophisticated centrifuges at its principal nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz, enabling it to greatly accelerate processing of uranium. Outside nuclear negotiations experts have suggested that Iran purposely timed that announcement to increase its diplomatic leverage at the upcoming talks. Given how unproductive and unwieldy the talks have been, some experts say that the best approach would be to have one-on-one negotiations between the United States and Iran. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered such discussions when he spoke at a security conference in Munich last weekend.
At the same time, there is little expectation that the talks will produce a solution to resolve the dispute, which has dragged on for years. Analysts who have followed the talks said they expect Iran to seek further delays for the Iranian new year celebrations that begin on March 20, and later for the Iranian presidential elections in June and the inauguration of a new president in August. Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said on Sunday that his country was open to direct talks. But an American official indicated such direct talks have not yet been agreed to.
“There is no sign that the sides’ positions have changed significantly since talks broke off in June 2012,” Cliff Kupchan, director of the Middle East at the Eurasia Group, a Washington-based consultancy, said in a note to clients on Tuesday. He said resumption of the diplomacy “is unlikely to yield any results soon.” The agreement on the meeting in Kazakhstan follows months of haggling over venues and dates. At one point late last year, the United States and its partners proposed a meeting in Istanbul only to see Iran counter with an offer to meet in Cairo. That proposal was part of Iran’s effort to forge warmer ties with Egypt, a move that was reflected in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday.

Reporting was contributed by Steven Erlanger from Paris, Michael R. Gordon from Washington and Rick Gladstone from New York.

An overwhelmingly Muslim state and former Soviet republic, Kazakhstan voluntarily gave up a large cache of enriched uranium in 1994.
Wendy R. Sherman, the under secretary for political affairs at the State Department, will lead the American delegation to the talks.
Dennis Ross, a former senior Obama administration official who is an expert on the Iranian nuclear issue at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that Iran might hint at some modest movement in the upcoming talks, perhaps to try to encourage divisions among the United States and the other powers involved in the talks.
One possibility, he said, was that Iran would press for the lifting of sanctions, a recognition of its right to enrich uranium while also signaling that it was ready to limit the production of uranium that is enriched to 20 percent. But that, he said, would not change the basic character of Iran’s nuclear program.
“My immediate expectations would be that they will do enough to justify another meeting afterwards,” Mr. Ross said of the Iranian position. “I do not have high expectations on what this meeting will produce.”

Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington and Alan Cowell from London. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.