An expected showdown in Iran-EU nuclear talks yesterday in London should be more sound than fury as both sides feel the negotiations are basically on hold until after Iranian presidential elections in June, diplomats said.
"It is still not the end game. Look to June," a European diplomat close to the talks said.
Another diplomat said the talks, set to take place yesterday evening, would be at the level of political directors of foreign ministries but held secretly and away from the press.
In Tehran on Thursday a key Iranian negotiator said the Islamic Republic was "very pessimistic" since the EU has been dragging its feet.
Hossein Mussavian said: "Up until now and from the start of the process [in December], especially since the Paris meeting [March 23], the Europeans have not undertaken any serious step to bring it to a close."
In The Hague, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said that if the talks collapsed, "it is our right to restore the program" of uranium enrichment which has been halted to get the talks going, with Tehran promised trade, security and technology rewards if it makes the suspension permanent.
Iran is waiting for an answer from EU negotiators Britain, Germany and France to a proposal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium, a process that makes fuel for nuclear reactors but in highly refined form can be the explosive core of atom bombs.
The European trio is holding fast, however, to its position that Iran must give up on all nuclear fuel activity in order to provide "objective guarantees" that it will not make atomic weapons, diplomats said.
The US, which backs the EU diplomatic initiative but is not party to the talks, charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and must be kept from obtaining the weapons breakout capability which enrichment represents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Jerusalem on Thursday that "Iran should abandon the creation of full nuclear cycle technologies and allow full international control of its nuclear facilities."
"Depending on how Iran acts on all these questions, we will act accordingly," said Putin, whose country is building Iran's first nuclear power reactor for civilian production of electricity.
Diplomats said the Iranians will not be able to make a deal with Europe on the nuclear issue until they have chosen a president.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS