BICOM

Two separate tracks of talks continued yesterday between representatives of the international community and Iran, with neither yielding progress on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met yesterday in Istanbul with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who is also a candidate in Iran’s presidential election next month. Ashton is responsible for contact between Iran and the so-called P5+1 forum (United States, UK, China, Russia, France and Germany), which leads international efforts to find a diplomatic solution to resolve concerns over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Although Ashton described yesterday’s meeting as “useful”, she was unable to report any substantive development, simply commenting, “we talked about the proposals we had put forward and we will now reflect on how to go on to the next stage of the process.” Iran has so far failed to respond to a P5+1 proposal last month which would have eased international sanctions on Iran in return for ending its’ development of twenty per cent uranium.

Meanwhile, in Vienna, representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met with Iranian officials but were unable to reach agreement to allow IAEA inspectors access to sites, officials and documents necessary to conduct an investigation into Iran’s nuclear development. The IAEA is especially keen to visit the Parchin plant, where it is suspected nuclear ballistic tests may have been carried out. IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts told reporters, “we could not finalise the structured approach document that has been under negotiations for a year and-a-half now.” Nackaerts pledged that “our commitment to continue dialogue is unwavering” but added “we must recognize that our best efforts have not been successful so far.”

It is widely thought that further talks on either track are unlikely to take place until after Iran’s presidential election on 14 June.