IRAN: Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, boosted hopes of a breakthrough in the international standoff over his country's suspected nuclear weapons programme yesterday by backing talks over "mutual concerns and misunderstandings".
Mr Ahmadinejad responded after it emerged Washington would allow the Islamic regime keep some capacity to enrich uranium if a deal was reached over its nuclear programme. Europe and the US had previously insisted that Iran permanently cease uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce an atomic bomb. That has now been diluted to a demand that it be suspended during renewed negotiations over an improved incentives package.
In a televised speech, Mr Ahmadinejad seized on the U-turn to claim a victory that put Iran in a powerful negotiating position. "International monopolists have been defeated in the face of your resistance and solidarity, and have been forced to acknowledge your dignity and greatness," he told an audience in the northwestern city of Qazvin.
"The Iranian nation will never hold negotiations about its definite rights with anybody, but we will talk about mutual concerns and solving misunderstandings in the international arena."
The president hedged his offer with warnings that Iran would not surrender to threats. He did not mention a UN incentives offer delivered to Tehran this week by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. But his endorsement of talks corresponded with the upbeat reception given the package by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, who has described it as "positive" and a basis for negotiations.
The speech echoed an 18-page letter Mr Ahmadinejad sent to US president George Bush last month, in which he lambasted American actions while calling for "new solutions" to global problems. But as the Iranian leader was softening his stance, UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna reported that Tehran had begun a fresh phase of uranium enrichment.
IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei said in a report to his governing board that Iran was pressing ahead with installing more cascades of centrifuge enrichment machines. The report said Iran resumed feeding "UF6" uranium gas into its pilot 164-centrifuge cascade in Natanz on Tuesday, after a pause of several weeks to do test-runs of the machines without UF6.
"We are moving away from confrontation and the situation seems to be getting better step by step," said Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran-based analyst. "Much more important [than enrichment] are security guarantees, removal of sanctions and fair access to global markets . . . If you resolve those points, reaching agreement on uranium enrichment will be relatively easy." - (Guardian Service)