Western powers hope the imposition of tougher UN, US and European sanctions since June on Iran, the world’s No. 5 oil exporter, will persuade it to enter serious negotiations and ultimately agree to curb uranium enrichment.
Following talks in Berlin with Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Westerwelle said Iran was still flouting the demands of the international community regarding its nuclear program.
“We’ve not been able to ascertain any substantial changes in the Iranian position, but we are certainly picking up new signals about their readiness to talk,” he said, adding that only time would tell whether this would produce results.
There have been no substantive discussions since late 2009, but European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told Reuters in late September that talks between Iran and six world powers involved in diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute could take place “in the next few weeks.”
Iran, which denies any nuclear arms ambitions and dismisses the impact of sanctions, said one of its officials may meet a representative of the powers in October.
Iran says its uranium enrichment is meant to generate electricity at a future network of nuclear power plants.
The United States and its allies suspect the program is a disguised effort to develop the means to produce atomic bombs and believe Iran has avoided substantive negotiations to buy time to reach that threshold.
Westerwelle urged Western powers to keep up the pressure on Tehran to comply with international demands.
“The latest report by Mr.Amano again shows that Iran is not fulfilling its international obligation toward transparency and cooperation,” he said. “This is just as unacceptable as the unjustified Iranian accusations of bias against the IAEA.”
Earlier, Westerwelle told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper that talks should be started quickly and said that he believed international pressure was having an effect on Iran.
As part of broad nuclear talks, the six powers have also said they remain ready to resume negotiations on a short-lived deal struck last year under which Iran would part with some of its low-enriched uranium — bomb material, if refined to a high degree — in exchange for medical research reactor fuel.
Tehran has called for quick negotiations on the fuel swap idea but also listed political conditions for broader-ranging talks dismissed as non-starters by Western diplomats.
