The world powers will be assessing whether Iranian regime is ready to accept a series of demands that the powers presented at the last such negotiations at the same venue in Kazakhstan in February.
In the first round of an expected two days of talks in the mountain city of Almaty, Iranian regime’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili has presented proposals of his own, in a scenario all too familiar from years of stalled nuclear talks.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the world powers, had said going into the talks that she hoped Iran would make a “considered, balanced and well-thought out response to try and reach an agreement on how we move forward.”
The six powers have moved from demanding a total end to enrichment. As a first step, they now are asking Iranian regime only to stop production and stockpiling of uranium enriched to 20 per cent, which is just a technical step away from weapons-grade uranium. A halt to production and stockpiling would keep Iranian regime’s supply below the amount needed for further processing into a weapon.
Iranian regime’s negotiator defiantly indicated going into Friday’s session that the regime had no intention of giving ground on the most important concession demanded by the West.
Saeed Jalili told the six powers — comprised of the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany and known collectively as the P5+1 — that Iranian regime demanded an immediate recognition of his regime’s right to enrich uranium.
“We think that they can open up tomorrow’s (Friday’s) talks with one phrase — and that is to accept Iran’s right, particularly its right to enrich,” Jalili said in a speech Thursday at an Almaty university.
The demand is inherently objectionable to the powers because Iranian regime is prohibited from enriching uranium by the United Nations and is heavily sanctioned for its secretive work.
Jalili also appeared to downplay the chances of his one-on-one meeting with chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman — talks Washington has been seeking for years.
“What our nation is expecting is for the US to correct its behaviour, and not just in words, and tomorrow in Almaty they are in for another test,” said Jalili.