Iran ready to resolve nuclear issues

Iran’s foreign minister said Monday that his country was ready and willing to resolve all nuclear issues in the next round of talks with world powers if the West extends out its hand and starts the process of lifting sanctions. Speaking in an interview with the Iranian student news agency ISNA, Ali Akbar Salehi also hinted that Iran could make concessions on its higher-grade uranium enrichment, which is a key concern of Western nations. Salehi was quoted as saying that:"If the West wants to take confidence-building measures it should start in the field of sanctions because this action can speed up the process of negotiations reaching results". He added "If there is goodwill, one can pass through this process very easily and we are ready to resolve all issues very quickly and simply and even in the Baghdad meeting," in reference to a second round of talks with world powers which is scheduled to take place in the Iraqi capital on May 23. The foreign minister described the initial meeting of the P5+1 group, which compromises the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, in Istanbul on Saturday, as positive and constructive. The talks were stalled for over a year, in which time the US and the EU tightened sanctions on Iran, which they suspect of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies. Salehi said that Iran would always assert its right to process uranium for peaceful purposes but that there might be room for a compromise on higher-level enrichment. He said: "Enrichment is Iran's right but we can negotiate on how we obtain uranium with different enrichment levels". He added: "Making 20 percent (enriched nuclear) fuel is our right as long as it provides for our reactor needs and there is no question about that. If they guarantee that they will provide us with the different levels of enriched fuel that we need, then that would be another issue." The Iranians maintain that they need to enrich uranium to a purity level of 20 percent to fuel a medical research reactor. However many countries see this level of enrichment as a dangerous step leading towards the path of 90 percent enrichment, which is needed for an atomic bomb. A deal tentatively agreed with the West in 2009 would have seen Iran exporting some of its lower enriched uranium in return for fuel for the medical reactor. However the deal fell apart and diplomats on all sides have stated that it would need to be modified in any future agreement.