EU: Meeting on Iran nuclear issue likely in Turkey

[March 19, 2010]  BRUSSELS (AP) -- Talks on Iran's nuclear program will likely be held in Turkey and full U.S. participation may lead to progress in the negotiations, the EU's chief diplomat said Tuesday.

"The Americans will be present in a formalized manner, this is new. I think that has to be evaluated positively by the Iranians," Javier Solana told reporters.

Casting aside conditions that former President George W. Bush had set for talks, President Barack Obama's administration is pressing for progress after years of little movement on Iran's nuclear program. Solana says the Oct. 1 meeting could help resolve the standoff over the Islamic Republic's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and heed other U.N. Security Council demands.

The U.S., Israel and the EU fear that Iran is using its nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons. But Tehran says the program serves purely civilian purposes and that it has the right to enrich uranium for use in nuclear power plants.

The talks will be the first since a 2008 session in Geneva foundered over Iran's refusal to discuss enrichment.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns -- who was at the Geneva talks as an observer -- would again represent the U.S.

But this time, EU officials said, Burns will be a full participant in the upcoming meeting, which will also include representatives of Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said enrichment -- which can make both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material -- "would be part of the discussion," despite Iranian warnings it would not even discuss meeting U.N. Security Council demands that it freeze uranium enrichment.

Washington's decision to talk with Iran appeared to be an attempt to preserve some six-power unity. Permanent Security Council members Russia and China have blocked Western attempts at tougher sanctions against Iran, so the agreement to drop insistence on an enrichment freeze and meet with Tehran without preconditions seemed gauged to keep Moscow and Beijing on board.

Solana and EU foreign ministers reiterated that they expected progress in the talks, otherwise the 27-nation bloc would push for new sanctions.

"If those dialogues don't lead to a result, we will have to go toward U.N. sanctions, if we don't get U.N. sanctions then we will have to think about unilateral EU sanctions," said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb.

German and French officials have suggested new sanctions could include stiffer restrictions in energy and financial sectors. Other possible measures include wider travel restrictions and freezing assets of Iranian officials.

Israel also has urged the international community to opt for toughness in the talks, not compromise, and to impose harsh sanctions if the talks falter again.

"If Iran doesn't take these talks seriously and miscalculates, then you have possibility of these sanctions moving forward," said Reva Bhalla, Director of Analysis at Stratfor, a U.S.-based global intelligence firm. "Washington is under pressure from Israel, which sees a serious urgency on this issue and is not likely to drop the push for aggressive sanctions."

[Associated Press; By SLOBODAN LEKIC]

AP writer Constant Brand also contributed to this report.

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