Doubts Intensify on Resumption of Iran Nuclear Talks

Prospects for the scheduled resumption of talks on Iran’s contentious nuclear energy program next week appeared to recede further Thursday, when the Iranians issued new objections to Turkey as the formerly agreed location for the talks and revealed they had rejected alternate proposals to hold them in at least three European countries.

Doubts that the talks would be held at all were compounded by the prime minister of Turkey, who criticized Iran for reneging on his country as the host and for what he described as the specious Iranian proposal of Syria and Iraq as alternate sites, knowing in advance that they would be rejected by the other side.

“The offer circulating around, whether Damascus and Baghdad, is all about dragging the feet,” the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said at a news conference in Ankara. “It’s another way of saying ‘Let’s not do it.’ ”

Mr. Erdogan, who visited Iran last week and came home expressing confidence that the Iranians were sincere, seemed angry over what he implied was an Iranian betrayal. “You need to be honest,” he said. “Because of the lack of honesty, they keep losing credibility in the world. This is not the language of diplomacy, but another language. And that does not suit me.”

Iran’s insistence on domestic uranium enrichment is at the heart of the talks, which were suspended in January 2011. Western countries suspect the enrichment is a cover by Iran to develop the capability to make nuclear weapons. Iran contends its activities are peaceful.

The resumed talks are scheduled to take place April 13 and 14 between Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 countries, which are the permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said this month that Turkey was the agreed-upon location.

But on Wednesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced that Iran no longer wanted to conduct the talks in Turkey. He did not give a reason, but other Iranian officials have complained in recent days about Turkish support for the antigovernment uprising in Syria, which is Iran’s only strategic ally in the Middle East.

Hardline conservative elements in Iran leveled new criticism at Turkey on Thursday. “Turkey has lost its impartiality,” said the daily newspaper Javan.

Neither the Iranians nor the P5-plus-1 nations have said the nuclear talks should be delayed or canceled. But Western diplomats widely view Iran’s objection to the location with only a week before the scheduled talks as a sign of either high-level Iranian indecision or a deliberate strategy of delay.

Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency said that the representative of the P5-plus-1 countries, Catherine Ashton, had proposed Norway, Switzerland and Austria as alternate locations, but that the Iranian side was “not interested in attending the talks in these countries.”

A State Department spokesman, Mark C. Toner, said that the United States still expected the meetings to be held on April 13 and 14 in Istanbul, but that the Americans were awaiting confirmation from Ms. Ashton. “We’re trying to clarify that right now,” he said.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Istanbul, Artin Afkhami from Boston and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.

Source: NYTimes.com