Iran “nuke talks” to continue in Moscow 18 June

Iran and world powers agree to further talks
24 May, 2012 – Al Akhbar

Iran and world powers will meet in Moscow on June 18-19 to hold further talks to try solve a long-standing dispute about an Iranian nuclear energy program, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Thursday.

Speaking after two days of discussions in the Iraqi capital between envoys from Iran and six leading powers to try to defuse Western fears of a covert Iranian effort to develop nuclear bombs, Ashton said it was clear both sides wanted progress and had some common ground but they also had significant differences.

“We have met with our Iranian counterparts over the last two days in very intense and detailed discussions,” Ashton said, representing six world powers at the talks in Baghdad.

She added that it was “clear that we both want to make progress, and that there is some common ground. However, significant differences remain.”

Iran’s chief negotiator stressed that Iran maintained the right to continue to enrich uranium and had made that point clear during the negotiations.

“Of the main topics in using peaceful nuclear, energy is the topic of having the nuclear fuel cycle and enrichment. We emphasise this right. This is an undeniable right of the Iranian nation…especially the right to enrich uranium,” Saeed Jalili said during a televised news conference after talks ended. …source