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Iran asks world powers to avoid "pressure policy" in upcoming Baghdad nuclear talks

14 May 2012 23:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Monday called on world powers to avoid policy of pressure in the upcoming Baghdad nuclear talks, the semi- official Fars news agency reported.

Mehmanparast cautioned the world powers that the policy of pressure against Iran will not yield their desirable results in the next round of talks, said Fars.

The last round of nuclear talks between Iran and the UN Security Council’s five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany (P5+1) concluded in Turkey’s Istanbul in April, with all sides describing the talks as positive and agreeing to meet again in the Iraqi capital on May 23.

"If the P5+1 enter the talks with the goal of cooperation in a positive atmosphere, we (Iran) will welcome it, too," the spokesman told Fars.

Such an attitude would be for the interests of both sides, he was quoted as saying.

He added that the Istanbul talks were held in a positive atmosphere and the two sides accepted to focus on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as an axis and a principle for dialogue.

Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili also warned Sunday against what he called "pressure strategy" by the West, and called on the Western states to avoid "unconstructive remarks" ahead of the Baghdad talks, Fars reported.

"Any kind of miscalculation" would endanger success of the negotiations, Jalili was quoted as saying in a meeting with visiting former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

"In Baghdad, we will be waiting for the building of the Iranian nation’s confidence" by P5+1, the negotiator said, according to the report.

Rocard said the "Istanbul talks were a positive step ahead," and expressed hope that Iran and the P5+1 would continue the path of understanding that they started in Istanbul.

On Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a new round of talks with Iran’s permanent representative to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, in Vienna. The talks are aimed at pushing Iran to allow the experts of the UN watchdog to visit the suspect Parchin military site.

Media said the IAEA has received reports that Iran had tested types of multipoint explosives which could be used to set off a nuclear charge. However, the Islamic republic denied the reports.

A report released by the IAEA in late February said Iran failed to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog’s high-ranking delegation who visited Tehran twice, in January and earlier February.

IAEA Director Yukiya Amano said in a statement that "during both the first and second meetings, the agency’s teams requested access to the military site at Parchin, but Iran did not grant the permission."

Amano called Iran’s refusal to permit the visit to Parchin as " disappointing," saying that the IAEA believes that Parchin is where Iran’s suspicious nuclear activities are carried out.

Media reported later that satellite images of trucks and vehicles moving at the Parchin military site have raised suspicions that, following the IAEA’s urgent request to visit the site, Iran might have started to clean up the area from the radioactive traces.

In March, Mehmanparast rejected claims that Iran tried to clean up radioactive traces due to the probable nuclear weapon tests at Parchin military site.

Mehmanparast said such news is propaganda and does not have technical value. "If nuclear activities are done in some regions, the traces cannot be cleaned up," he said.