Talks begin in bid for compromise on Iran’s nuclear aims

The two sides parted in February after a previous meeting in the Kazakh city of Almaty with agreement to at least keep talking over a new proposal submitted by the six – the United States, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany. But they remain vastly divided on what they want from each other.

Iran wants an end to punishing sanctions crippling its economy. They were imposed to force it to end uranium enrichment, a process that can generate nuclear energy and the core of nuclear weapons.

Iran denies any interest in atomic arms, insists its enrichment programme serves only peaceful needs, says it has a right to enrich under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and describes UN Security Council demands that it stop enrichment as illegal.

“We are talking about peaceful nuclear energy,” Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said before the two sides sat down at one of Almaty’s five-star hotels. He said Iran had a right to such a programme and accused “a handful of countries” of working “to deny this right to others”.

The six have moved from demanding a total end to enrichment, and are asking Tehran only to stop production and stockpiling of uranium enriched to 20 per cent, is a technical step away from weapons-grade uranium.

A halt to production and stockpiling would keep Iran’s supply below the amount needed for further processing into a weapon.

Ahead of the meeting an EU official speaking for the six world powers said the onus was on Iran to engage on the six-nation offer, which foresees a lifting of some sanctions but keeps penalties crippling Iran’s oil sales and economy in place.

“What we are hoping for is that Tehran will come back to us today with a clear and concrete response,” said Michael Mann.

“The core issue here is the international community concern of the very strong indications that Iran is developing technology that could be used for military purposes,” said Mr Mann.

“There are suspicions of an enrichment programme that could have military uses,” he said. “The confidence building has to come from Iran because it is Iran that is developing its nuclear programme.”

Ahead of yesterday’s session, a senior US administration official suggested more punitive sanctions would be imposed if “Iran does not begin to take concrete steps and concrete actions to meet international concerns”.