Iran, EU: Progress Made In Nuke Talks

(AP)  Iranian and European Union negotiators said Sunday they made progress toward solving the impasse over Tehran's refusal to meet U.N Security Council demands that it freeze uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.

The talks in Vienna, which began Saturday, had been given little chance after months of building crisis over enrichment, exacerbated by Tehran's defiance of a U.N. deadline to freeze such activities and a U.S.-led push for Security Council sanctions.

But both sides spoke positively of the results and said they would meet again in the coming days.

Javier Solana, the senior EU foreign policy official, said "the meeting was worth it," while chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told reporters that "many of the misunderstandings were removed."

"We have reached a common point of view on a number of issues," he said.

Both said they would meet next week without disclosing a day or venue. Clarifying their comments later, Solana spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said the two had meant to say they would meet sometime in the week starting Monday.

With Solana scheduled to travel to Africa on Monday, however, it was unlikely that the talks would resume before Thursday or Friday.

The meeting had been billed as possibly the last chance for Iran to avoid penalties for rejecting the U.N. Security Council's demand that it stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31.

Iran says it wants to develop an enrichment program to generate power. But there are growing concerns it seeks the technology to enrich uranium to weapons-grade for the core of warheads.

The talks were focused on seeking common ground for negotiations between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear defiance. While the five permanent Security Council members — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — along with Germany have demanded that Iran fully freeze enrichment as a condition for further negotiations, Tehran has steadfastly refused to do so.

The six powers agreed on a package of economic and political rewards in June to be offered to Tehran, but only if it stops enrichment before the start of such negotiations, meant to achieve a long-term enrichment moratorium.

But the international alliance also warned of punishments, including U.N. sanctions, if Tehran does not halt enrichment.

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[grazinggoat]

A step further toward a soft solution.