Sanctions-Hit Iran to Restart Nuclear Talks, EU Says

(Bloomberg) -- Iran’s clerical regime, under pressure from international economic sanctions, agreed to restart talks over its disputed uranium enrichment activities for the first time in more than a year, the European Union said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the envoy of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members plus Germany on the nuclear program, said she will meet with Saeed Jalili, Iran’s nuclear negotiator, after Nov. 10.

“This is a very significant move and we’re now in touch with Iran this morning to see whether we can agree the time and place as quickly as possible,” Ashton told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

Iran’s return to the negotiating table opens a new chapter in U.S.-led efforts to force the country to provide reassurances that it isn’t seeking to build atomic weapons, which might touch off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

The decision to resume contacts comes two days after the EU announced details of sanctions on its banking, energy and shipping industries, enforcing a fourth set of UN penalties that so far have failed to persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium.

The two sides last met in Geneva on Oct. 1, 2009. In a letter to the EU today, Jalili said Iran agreed to resume the dialogue under a number of undisclosed conditions, PressTV reported on its website.

“We would hope that Iran would come to the table prepared for a meaningful engagement,” State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told reporters today in Washington. “We had strong signs a year ago when the first meeting took place. We thought it was a constructive engagement.”

Investment Ban

The EU’s sanctions package includes a ban on new investment in or equipment sales to Iran’s oil and natural-gas industries, restrictions on export-credit guarantees and insurance, and closer monitoring of banks doing business with Iran.

In shrugging off previous UN sanctions, Iran has denied Western suspicions that it is building bombs, saying the nuclear program is designed to generate electricity for a growing population.

“They still don’t have an agreement about what should be on the agenda,” Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Iran who consults with the London-based Chatham House policy advisory group, said in a telephone interview. “The P5+1 aren’t prepared to talk about Iranian demands and the Iranians aren’t prepared to abandon their nuclear program.”

--With assistance from Jonathan Tirone in Vienna and Flavia Krause-Jackson in Washington. Editors: Leon Mangasarian, Ann Hughey.