Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

China once again urged International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), five permanent members of UN Security Council and Germany to enhance dialogue and cooperation with Iran to resolve Iran's nuclear issue, IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday China has called for negotiations and diplomacy as the "only right way" to resolve the Western standoff over Iran's nuclear energy program.

Noting the UN nuclear watchdog's latest report, which said Iran is installing more centrifuges at its enrichment plants Hua said, 'China has always considered that dialogue and cooperation is the only right way to properly resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.'

The spokesperson said the top priority is that G5+1 stick to talks and the IAEA enhances cooperation with Iran to achieve progress at an early date, so as to seek a comprehensive, long-term and appropriate solution.

China hopes all parties concerned could make constructive efforts to this end, Hua said.

According to the report by the IAEA, which was released on Friday, Iran has increased centrifuges installed at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, near the city of Qom.

The report says Iran has prepared 700 more centrifuges at the Fordow facility for operation since August, doubling the plant's enrichment capacity. If all of them produced 20% enriched uranium, which can be improved to bomb grade with relative ease, it would cut to about three months, down from six, the time needed to accumulate enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb.

According to the report Iran has installed 2,800 centrifuges at Fordow, the total the facility is designed to hold. But half are not ready to begin operation.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said during the press conference in Tehran on Tuesday that Iran was fully ready to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog to reach an agreement which would guarantee Iran's legitimate rights and remove the agency's concerns regarding its peaceful nuclear activities.

He said the key to successful negotiations between Iran and IAEA is that the agency has to have a reasonable, logical approach towards Iran.

"The talks will soon be held, and we hope that the IAEA representatives will be entering them through logical and serious posture," Mehmanparast said, adding that Iran's full rights to peaceful enrichment should be guaranteed.

The IAEA and Iran have agreed to hold further talks on December 13.

Speaking of Iran's upcoming talks with P5+1 group, Mehmanparast said that Iran is prepared to hold constructive talks with the group.

"If the P5+1 replaces its wrong approach with other methods, if there is a reasonable approach, then we will all come to understanding, and all concerns will be removed," Mehmanparast said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will reportedly host a meeting of representatives of six major powers in Brussels on Wednesday, as part of efforts to dissuade Iran from its nuclear program.

The talks with the six will be the first since the Nov. 6 re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, which raised hope of a revival of diplomacy after hawkish campaign talk and speculation that Israel might strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

Iran and the P5+1 have held several rounds of multifaceted talks mainly over the Iranian nuclear energy program.

Following a meeting with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on November 14 in Tehran, Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili expressed Tehran's readiness to continue negotiations and urged the P5+1 to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the unilateral western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.