Turkey injects hopes into Iran nuclear talks

Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

ANKARA, July 19 (Chinese media) -- Just a day before Iranian

chief nuclear negotiator meets with representatives from world heavyweights in

Geneva and a day after a key visit to Turkey by the U.S. president's National

Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki

here in Ankara discussed Tehran's contentious nuclear program with Turkish

officials, expecting progress in the key talks.

Representatives from Britain, China, Russia and France as well as the European Union's high commissioner for foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, will meet with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in Geneva to discuss Iran's response to an offer made by world powers last month to encourage it to give up its sensitive nuclear work, which the West believes it is aimed at building a nuclear bomb and Tehran says his country is for peaceful power-generation purposes.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York July 2, 2008. (Chinese media/Reuters Photo)
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"I hope that today's talks will lead to a framework

for negotiations" and "we hope that in today's talks a modality and framework

that satisfies both sides is compiled," Mottaki said, according to the websites

of Iranian state broadcasting and Arabiclanguage channel Al-Alam on Saturday.

For the first time, a representative from the United

States, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, will also

attend the talks, signaling a policy change on the part of Washington and

raising hopes that a peaceful settlement may be found to an international

dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

"The new negotiation process is positive and the

procedure is good. It signals good developments for the future" and "We hope

good results will come out if the process continues like that, " Mottaki told a

joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in the Turkish

capital of Ankara on Friday.

Turkey, which has been mediating between Israel and

Syria in recent months, has said it is also involved in talks with Iran and

expressed support for Saturday's talks in Geneva, which could be pivotal in

deciding whether diplomacy will succeed.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said

later Friday that Turkey was likely to assume a role in the diplomatic efforts

for a solution. Asked whether Turkey's role could be defined as mediation, he

said he wouldn't go that far. "But the parties may have expectations from us.

Turkey may be asked to intervene in difficult times," he said.

Babacan also insisted that while Turkey is against

the proliferation of nuclear weapons in its region, it also believes in the

right of all countries to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Babacan has said in recent statements that there have

been requests from both sides to "see Turkey in the picture" and that Turkey has

been having talks with both sides over the past several weeks.

Experts say Turkey, which has good ties with both

Iran and the West, is well placed to offer credible assistance to help find a

solution in the nuclear row, which Ankara fears that it could result in a new

regional disaster.

"Proposals to resolve conflicts in our region are

first worked out in Ankara and then brought to the international platform,"

Erdal Safak, a columnist for the Sabah daily, wrote on Friday, adding, "Ankara

has become a medical clinic offering prescriptions for peace."

In an interview with Turkish private NTV channel,

Mottaki praised the role Turkey, a neighbor of Iran and a close U.S. ally, has

played in the process, saying it was pursuing a "constructive stance."

On Thursday, during his visit to Ankara Hadley met

with President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan and Babacan. He did not comment on Iran's

nuclear program, but his visit led to speculation in the Turkish media that

Turkey was passing his message to Mottaki about a U.S. desire for normalization

of relations with Iran.

Mottaki insisted on specifically calling a U.S.

mission a "U.S. interest-protection bureau," instead of a diplomatic mission,

but raised the prospect of talks on restoring fractured relations between Iran

and the United States.

"I think there might be an agreement both on the

issue of opening a U.S. interest-protection bureau in Iran and on the issue of

direct flights to Iran," he said.

The United States, which cut diplomatic ties with

Iran shortly after its 1979 Islamic revolution, accused Tehran of seeking to

build nuclear bombs.

Washington insists it will not negotiate with Iran as

it has with North Korea until Tehran halts its enrichment and reprocessing of

uranium. But it is supporting an effort led by the EU's Solana that would allow

for early talks with others in the six-nation group before such a step.

However, Iran has rebuffed the attempt to persuade it

to stop enrichment and reprocessing, which can produce the key ingredient for

atomic weapons, and insists its nuclear program is designed only to produce

electric power. Others, particularly the United States and Israel, maintain it

is a cover for weapons development.

When asked whether Iran was ready to freeze any

expansion of its nuclear program in return for the UN Security Council halting

further sanctions against it, Mottaki declined to comment, saying," Let's not

hurry."

The UN has so far imposed three sets of sanctions on

Iran over its nuclear program. Tensions with Iran have particularly intensified

since Tehran tested missiles last week, alarming Israel and pushing up oil

prices. Washington responded to the tests by saying that it would defend its

allies against any possible attacks.