Iran nuclear talks end, new round scheduled for 2011

Officials say meetings in Geneva focused on arranging new negotiations; Ahmadinejad says talks can work if sanctions dropped.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili 311 AP (photo credit: Associated Press)
Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili 311 AP
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Nuclear negotiators on Tuesday said talks between Iran and six world powers have ended and a new round is planned early next year in Turkey.
Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said he expects those talks to be held in Istanbul. Other officials from delegations in the talks confirmed those plans and said they will take place in late January or early February.
RELATED:Sanctions on Iran: Bark or bite? Analysis: Notes from an undeclared cold war
The officials asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. All spoke after the end of two days of talks between Iran and the six powers that focused mainly on general terms of setting up new nuclear negotiations.
Earlier in the day, before the second day of nuclear talks began, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if sanctions are removed, that nuclear "talks will definitely be fruitful," Reuters reported.
In a speech dubbed in English on PressTV, the Iranian president said that only "by putting aside all of the wrong decisions, and the inappropriate manners that you have, by scrapping all those [sanctions] resolutions that have had no effect on the Iranian people, by putting aside and cancelling all those restrictions you have created," could the nuclear talks succeed, according to Reuters.
Talks between Iran and the six world powers went into their second day with no signs of progress on UN Security Council demands that Tehran curb its nuclear activities.
An official at the negotiations said the first meeting Monday gave little reason to presume that Iran would relent and address the demands. That would dash hopes of a renewed meeting in the new year.
Delegates from Iran, the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany were meeting Tuesday at a conference center in Geneva.
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the Iranian threat
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the Iranian threat