Iran wants new proposals before talks

World powers negotiating with Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme must come up with new proposals before talks in Geneva on Oct 15-16, Iran’s foreign minister said.

The US wants Iran to respond to proposals by world powers in February as a starting point for talks. If the parties cannot agree on how to start negotiations, it casts doubt on whether a resolution can be agreed within the six months Iranian president Hassan Rouhani says he wants a deal.

Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — plus Germany, the so-called P5+1, said in February they want Iran to stop enrichment of uranium to 20%, ship out some stockpiles, and shutter a facility where such enrichment is done.

In return, they offered relaxation of international sanctions on Iran’s petrochemicals and trade in gold and other precious metals.

“The previous P5+1 plan given to Iran belongs to history and they must enter talks with a new point of view,” foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian state television on Saturday.

“The players must put away this illusion that they can impose anything on the Iranian people.”

The election of Rouhani in June and his appointment of US-educated Zarif as foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator have raised hopes for a solution to the decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Western powers believe Iranian enrichment activities are aimed at achieving nuclear weapons capability, whereas Iran insists its programme is purely for civilian purposes — generating electricity and for a medical research reactor.

Rouhani and Zarif tried to dispel mistrust with meetings, speeches, and interviews at the UN General Assembly in New York last month, capped with a phone call between the Iranian president and US President Barack Obama.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday he supported Rouhani’s diplomatic opening with the US. But he said some aspects of it were “not proper” and that he did not trust the US as a negotiating partner, a sentiment echoed by Zarif.