Iran's agreement to hold the Istanbul talks over its nuclear
program with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States was
the only tangible result of a meeting in Geneva this month. But hopes for a
breakthrough are slight.
"We hope the Istanbul meeting becomes a good meeting
with lasting results," Ahmadinejad told a news conference in Istanbul at
the close of a regional summit ahead of the January talks.
"It will be a very important meeting ... an historic
opportunity to change (the policy of) confrontation to interaction and
cooperation ... It will be in everybody's interest," he said.
The United Nations imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran
in June over Iran's refusal to halt the enrichment of uranium. The United
States and European Union followed up by adding their own sanctions targeting
financial transactions with Iran and the country's vital oil and gas sector.
The big powers want Iran to halt its uranium enrichment
program, which they suspect is a cover for an effort to build a nuclear
arsenal. Iran says it has the right to enrich uranium for civilian use and does
not want atomic weaponry.
"Iran's nuclear path is irreversible," Ahmadinejad
said. The United States and its allies, he said, "have unsuccessfully
tried to violate our obvious right.”
"Sanctions have no impact on Iran's decision-making
process ... and sanctions have always failed ... Our enemies cannot harm our
very strong economy by imposing sanctions on Iran." Despite Iran's
insistence, political analysts say the unexpected severity of the economic
measures is an important factor in bringing Tehran back to talks, which it
abandoned for more than a year before the meeting in Geneva.
Ahmadinejad joined leaders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and
Central Asian states in Turkey for a summit of the 10-member Economic
Cooperation Organization (ECO).
Turkey has transformed itself from a financial basket case
on the periphery of Europe a decade ago, into one of the world's
best-performing economies, which now stakes a claim to a regional leadership
role.
Turkey's governing AK Party, which emerged from a series of
banned Islamist movements, has reached out to the likes of Iran, Syria and the
Palestinian movement Hamas, and stood up to US ally Israel, enhancing Erdogan's
popularity in the Middle East.
That has alarmed some in the United States who would like to
see its NATO ally lining up behind its plan of isolating the Islamic Republic,
but it has also given Turkey, in Iran's eyes, the credibility to act a mediator
in the nuclear dispute.
Iran will draw comfort from the Turkish presence in the
talks next month, even as mere hosts.
"We will do everything we can," Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters. "But our role is clear. We are
hosts. If the sides want it, of course we are ready to provide every kind of
help."
