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Iran: Tehran Wants Talks But Washington Is Not Listening Iranian officials are attempting to open negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s alleged nuclear development, but Washington is not interested, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, July 11). “We are not reaching out at this point,” said a State Department official. Tim Guldimann, the Swiss ambassador to Iran, also conveyed the message that Tehran wanted to talk. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Tehran (Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, July 15). Mohammad Zarif, Iran’s U.N. ambassador, has been meeting with U.S. officials in an attempt to arrange talks. Zarif has reportedly indicated that Iran would consider signing the Additional Protocol, which would open up its nuclear activities to closer International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring, in exchange for direct talks. Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, last week said that Iran might be close to developing a nuclear weapon. “The point of no return — where they are on the verge or on the way to get nuclear capabilities — is much, much smaller now, could be even a matter of a year or so,” Ayalon said (Guy Dinmore, Financial Times II, July 15). European diplomats, meanwhile, are becoming frustrated by their offers of trade agreements to Tehran in exchange for negotiating concessions. “There is a degree of major frustration. There is a chink of light on the nuclear issue, total immobility on human rights, some movement but not much on terrorism and nothing at all on the Middle East peace process,” said a European ambassador in Tehran. The European Union is demanding that Iran sign the Additional Protocol, or lose a trade deal with Europe. “Iran claims to have peaceful intentions but that doesn’t mean a thing,” German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said earlier this month (Stefan Smith, Pakistan Dawn, July 15). Japan Says Oil Not Linked to Nuclear Issue In talks that begin this weekend, Tokyo will not combine the nuclear issue and the potential development of an Iranian oil field by Japanese companies, Asahi Shimbun reported today. Yukiya Amano, the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s director general for arms control and scientific affairs, is expected to tell Iranian officials that Japan is not waiting for Iran to sign the Additional Protocol before Japanese companies develop the oil field. U.S. officials have been pressuring Japan to hold off on the oil work while the nuclear issue remains unresolved (Asahi Shimbun, July 15). Tehran Holding Al-Qaeda Members Iran reportedly is holding several al-Qaeda members, including spokesman Sulaiman abu Ghaith, a senior Iranian official said this weekend. U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed the report. “We did have knowledge of a number of al-Qaeda people in Iran under some circumstance, rumors of them being taken into some kind of custody, the nature of which is unclear,” said a U.S. official (Azadeh Moaveni, Los Angeles Times, July 15).
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