Turkey urges negotiation between Iran, West

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu dismissed the West's unilateral sanctions against Iran as ineffective, and stressed that negotiation is the best solution to Iran's nuclear issue. Western sanctions against Iran will not halt Tehran's nuclear program, Davutoglu told the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, reiterating that negotiations were the best way to settle the Iranian nuclear stalemate. The Turkish minister stressed that sanctions were not "meaningful" to stop the Iranian nuclear program. He added that the Iranian nuclear issue could be solved "within a few days", if there was "mutual confidence and a strong political will" by the West and Iran. Davutoglu urged serious negotiations by both sides in a bid to reach "very concrete results." Iran has always underlined its preparedness to resume talks with the West but has meantime stressed that it will never accept any precondition for such talks. Last month, Iran called on the world powers to try to find negotiated solutions to the deadlock they have created through their wrong domestic and foreign policies against Tehran. "European Union sanctions on Iranian oil is a psychological warfare ... Imposing economic sanctions is illogical and unfair, and will not stop our nation from obtaining its rights," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said late in January. "The European countries and those who are under American pressure should think about their own interests. Any country that deprives itself of Iran's energy market will soon see that it has been replaced by others," he underlined at the time. "Consensus can only be reached through serious negotiations based on a cooperative approach and not via the wrong path of sanctions," Mehman-Parast said.