Brazil hopes to revive Iran nuclear talks, Turkey urges comprehensive solution
By Sara Rajabova
Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota has said it may again be possible to revive talks over Iran's nuclear program, Hurriyet Daily reported on Friday.
Patriota said he thinks that the May 2010 deal was a missed opportunity.
Iran had signed an agreement to send uranium abroad for enrichment after talks in Tehran with Turkish and Brazilian leaders in 2010. Tehran agreed to ship 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for nuclear fuel rods for a medical research reactor. World powers rejected the deal because Iran had increased its uranium stockpile.
"The attempt [in 2010], I think, was one of genuine good faith to adopt a confidence-building measure that would represent a step forward in dealing with a very challenging issue," Patriota said.
Patriota noted that since May 2010, the other strategies have not produced better results, namely, the unilateral sanctions or the other threats that have been directed against Iran.
The Brazilian minister said he had been hearing many voices saying that new talks with Iran might be possible to bring diplomacy back to the scene in 2013.
"In fact, one of the voices who hold this view is that of Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister who will be joining me and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in İzmir for a meeting the next day," he said.
The foreign ministers of the three countries - Davutoglu, Bildt and Patriota - are all set to attend the annual meeting of Turkish ambassadors on Friday in İzmir to discuss a joint initiative to "prevent assaults against sacred values."
Patriota also said the U.N. Security Council was in need of reform over how to deal with the Iran nuclear crisis, as the "world is undergoing a very rapid geopolitical change in the nature and distribution of economic and political power."
Turkish President Abdullah Gul stated in an interview published in the latest issue of globally acclaimed foreign policy magazine Foreign Affairs that Turkey did not want to see any neighboring country possess nuclear weapons, Turkish media reported on Thursday.
Gulcalled for a comprehensive solution to the international dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
"Turkey will not accept a neighboring country possessing weapons not possessed by Turkey herself," Gul said. "We are not underestimating this matter in any way."
Gul insisted that any solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program should involve the eradication of all nuclear weapons from the region and be based on a realistic approach that should take into account how Iran perceives the external threat. Israel's security must also be guaranteed.
Asked if this meant the key to stopping the Iranian nuclear program is Israeli disarmament, Gul said, "That is the way I see it, because that route will help us solve the fundamental problems in the Middle East that affect the whole world."