Iran agrees to Dec. 6-7 nuclear talks: EU

Iran has agreed to discuss its nuclear programme at a meeting next week in Geneva, the European Union announced on Tuesday.

Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, will meet with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on December 6 and 7 — the first talks in a year after negotiations bogged down.

Her office said she will act “on behalf” of the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany — six nations representing the international community in its standoff with Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Officials from the six nations are expected to attend the Geneva talks.

The United States and its allies say Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies that. However, Iran’s enrichment program is of international concern because it can create both fuel for an electricity-generating reactor as well as nuclear warhead material. Iran insists it wants to enrich only to run a nuclear reactor network.

The U.S. and some of its allies are pushing Tehran to fully open all facilities to international inspection and to give up uranium enrichment, a key element that could give it a pathway to a bomb. Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium for producing nuclear fuel.

Last month, the EU rejected Istanbul as a venue saying there was no need for another regional power to get involved.

Negotiations foundered a year ago over a U.N.-drafted proposal for Iran to ship most of its stockpile of enriched uranium abroad for further processing and to be returned in the form of fuel rods for a Tehran research reactor that makes isotopes used in cancer treatment.