DUBAI: An Iranian news agency said yesterday that Iran and six world powers would resume talks over the Islamic state’s nuclear programme in late January but a European Union official said the two sides had yet to agree a date.
The Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) gave no source for its report and later on Wednesday appeared to have deleted it from its website, without giving a reason.
Russia voiced alarm last week at delays in agreeing a new round of talks on the Iranian programme, which the West suspects is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon capability. Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy purposes.
Three rounds of negotiations in 2012, the last one in June in Moscow, failed to achieve a breakthrough in the decade-old dispute which has the potential to spark a new Middle East war.
The Isna report said the two sides would meet again on January 28 and 29. But it also said the date could change depending on which location was agreed. It cited Istanbul and Geneva and “some other cities” as possible places.
A diplomat in Vienna, where the UN nuclear agency is based, suggested the dates cited by Isna could be correct. Both the diplomat and Isna said the venue had not yet been decided.
“That’s what we’ve heard too, still working on the venue,” the diplomat said.
But a spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in Brussels that no date had yet been set.
Reuters
