Iran urged to accept nuclear offer

Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have agreed on the need for a positive response by Iran in renewed nuclear talks.

"Both the US and China believe that Iran should cooperate and should respond positively to the offer on the table," A US official told reporters on Thursday.

Kerry is due to hold one of the highest-level meetings between Iran and the US since the 1979 revolution when he sits down with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif for nuclear talks led by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.

The group, dubbed the P5+1, made a new offer to Iran earlier this year, before Rouhani's election, on how to overcome a current stalemate in the nuclear dossier.

It is believed to have offered an easing of international sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy, in return for a slow down of Iran's controversial uranium enrichment program.

The Iranian government has yet to respond fully to the offer.

Meanwhile, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani earlier called on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty and put its widely suspected nuclear arms under international control.

"No nation should possess nuclear weapons," Rouhani told a UN General Assembly meeting on nuclear disarmament.

"As long as nuclear weapons exist, the risk of their use, threat of use and proliferation persist. The only absolute guarantee is their total elimination."

Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never acknowledged its program, has not signed the treaty, unlike Iran.

However, Israel denounced the call, accusing Rouhani of diverting attention from his regime's own nuclear work.

Yuval Steinitz, the head of the Israeli delegation in New York, said Rouhani was trying "to smile his way to the bomb".

"The man is an expert with tricks," Steinitz, Israel's minister for strategic and intelligence affairs, told AFP.

"Instead of saying that Iran will finally comply with the Security Council resolutions, it tries to shift attention to Israel."