ISTANBUL, turkey —World powers set the stage for potentially crucial talks with Iran on Friday over its disputed nuclear program, even as Western officials appeared to rule out one much-discussed path to beginning negotiations.
Fourteen months after the last talks broke down in acrimony, representatives of six powers gathered for what is expected to be a one-day meeting today with Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator. Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and the organizer of the talks, met with Jalili for dinner Friday night to prepare the way for the group talks.
The six countries — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — hope to negotiate limits on Iran’s nuclear development program, which many powers fear is aimed at developing a bomb, despite Iran’s denials. The so-called P5 plus 1 nations want to see concrete signs that, after a series of false starts, Iran is willing to disclose more about its half-hidden program and halt production of enriched uranium that could become fuel for a nuclear bomb.
Yet diplomats suggested that the European Union could not, as some outsiders have suggested, hold off the July 1 implementation of a scheduled embargo on purchases of Iranian oil as a reward for an agreement by the Islamic Republic to freeze its enrichment activities. The embargo, they said, is already law in Europe and could be dismantled only over time, once Iran takes verifiable and substantial steps to roll back its program.
The comments underscored the complexity of the negotiations. Although the Western nations are eager to find mutual opening concessions that could clear the way for detailed negotiations, they are under intense pressure not to give away too much, especially with the economic punishments that have been their point of greatest leverage.
A quick suspension of the sanctions could open President Barack Obama to political attacks from conservative political foes and could displease Israel, which is threatening to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities if the sanctions don’t halt what it views as a threat to its existence.
Iran might be planning on winning support for a suspension of sanctions from Russia and China, which are unhappy with the Western moves that limit the lucrative international energy trade.
