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Iran, six powers lock horns over nuclear reactor that could yield plutonium

19 March 2014 19:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iran and world powers locked horns on Wednesday over the future of a planned Iranian nuclear reactor that could yield plutonium for bombs but Europe's top diplomat described the talks as "substantive and useful" and the sides will reconvene in April, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The meeting in Vienna was the second in a series that the six nations - the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France, Britain - hope will produce a verifiable settlement on the scope of Iran's nuclear program, ensuring it is oriented to peaceful ends only, and put to rest the risk of a new Middle East war.

This week the two sides attempted to iron out their positions on two of the most thorny issues: the level of uranium enrichment conducted in Iran, and its Arak heavy-water reactor that the West sees as a possible source of plutonium for bombs.

They appeared to reach no agreements and said only that they would meet again on April 7-9, also in the Austrian capital. However, Tehran's foreign minister voiced optimism that their July 20 deadline for a final agreement was within reach.

The broad goal is to transcend ingrained mutual mistrust and give the West confidence that Iran will not be able to produce atomic bombs and Tehran - in return - full relief from economic sanctions that have crippled the OPEC state's economy.

Iran denies that its declared civilian atomic energy program is a front for developing the means to make nuclear weapons, but its restrictions on U.N. inspections and Western intelligence about bomb-relevant research have raised concerns.

"We had substantive and useful discussions, covering a set of issues, including enrichment, the Arak reactor, civil nuclear cooperation and sanctions," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters after the two-day session.

The United States has called on Iran to scrap or radically alter the as yet-uncompleted reactor, but Tehran has so far rejected that idea while hinting it could modify the plant.

A Western diplomat cautioned that the purpose of the current round of negotiations was not to nail down a final agreement.

"The goal of these sessions is not to solve any topics at this point (but) to be talking through the gaps and working on how to narrow them," the diplomat, speaking on condition he was not further identified, told Reuters.