US Secretary of State John Kerry Meets PM Netanyahu; "No Open Ended, Endless" Iran Nuke Talks

Iran Press News - Reuters

US secretary of state meets with PM Netanyahu and Peres for talks that also touch on peace process.

The United States won’t allow Iran to indefinitely drag out negotiations over its nuclear program, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday, before heading to Ben Gurion International airport.

"Iran cannot have and will not have a nuclear weapon," Kerry stated flatly.

“We are open to negotiation, but it is not an open-ended, endless negotiation; it cannot be used as an excuse for other efforts to try to break out with respect to a nuclear weapon,” he said.

The US has made it clear to Israel and to the international community that it is serious on this score.

“President [Barack] Obama doesn’t bluff; he’s made that very clear to me. And we hope the Iranians will come back to the table with a very serious proposal,” Kerry said.

He spoke as Western diplomats scramble to keep alive negotiations with Tehran over the possibility that it would voluntarily halt its nuclear program.

At a meeting in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Friday and Saturday, the six nations - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - tried to persuade Iran to give up its most sensitive uranium-enrichment work to allay concerns that Tehran is seeking the means to make atom bombs.

Iranian negotiators did not accept the offer - coupled with a pledge of modest relief from crippling economic sanctions - and the two sides failed to even agree to meet again.

World powers believe there are enough grounds to keep talking to Iran about its disputed nuclear program, a senior Western diplomat said on Monday, even though the latest round of negotiations made little apparent progress.

"There is enough substance for these negotiations to continue," the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. "I would not expect a breakdown."

The EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees diplomatic contacts with Iran on behalf of the six nations, will also discuss plans for further engagement with Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili in the coming days.

On Monday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said that the country had opened the Saghand 1 and 2 uranium mines in the central city of Yazd and the Shahid Rezaeinejad yellow cake factory, capable of producing 60 tonnes of yellow cake annually.

In Jerusalem on Monday morning Netanyahu told Kerry that Iran, "cannot be allowed to continue its nuclear weapons program. We must not allow it do to so in defiance of the entire international community." Netanyahu continued, "I think everyone understands that Iran has been running out the clock, has been using the talks to continue to advance its nuclear program."

“You’ve just heard by Iranian state television about a new production facility for nuclear material and two new extraction sites,” he said.

“I think we also understand what it means for the world to have rogue states with nuclear weapons,” he said and added that Tehran cannot be allowed to continue its nuclear program “in defiance of the entire international community.”

He added that he and Kerry had also discussed the violence in Syria and the tragic death of civilians as well as concerns over the country's stockpile of chemical weapons.

"The fragmentation of that country is crewing a situation where one of the most dangerous stockpiles of weapons in the word is now becoming accessible to terrorists of every shade and hue,” Netanyahu said.

He and Kerry spoke at the tail end of a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. He had dinner with Netanyahu on Monday night and spoke with Shimon Peres. Kerry will be followed by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will pay a first visit to Israel since taking office on April 21-23.

Separately International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz spoke about the dangers of a nuclear Iran with Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird. He thanked Baird for Canada's strong position on the need to take all necessary measures to block Iran uranium production.