Iran wants to hold nuclear talks in Iraq, not Turkey

Iran wants to hold nuclear talks in Iraq, not Turkey.(AlArabiya).Iran has proposed holding the next round of talks with six world powers over its disputed nuclear program next week in Iraq instead of Turkey, Iraq’s foreign ministry said, as U.S. warned that a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program would destabilize the region. The ministry said an Iranian delegation visited Baghdad on Tuesday, and “expressed Tehran’s wish for Baghdad to host the meeting of the five permanent members in the United Nations plus Germany about Iran’s nuclear program on April 14.” Iraq would make the necessary contacts concerned about the proposal, the ministry said, according to Reuters.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, meanwhile, told Reuters the proposal for talks in Baghdad came from an Iranian delegation visiting on Tuesday and he would meet with ambassadors from the five Western powers plus Germany on Tehran's plan. “The proposal came from them. We received a delegation from Iran... Today we are inviting G5 plus one ambassadors to hand over a letter about the proposal,’ Zebari said.Iraq’s Shiite-led government is closely aligned with Iran in a region where Sunni Arab Gulf powers are jockeying for influence with Shiite power Tehran. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said on Saturday that the Apr. 13-14 negotiations with Iran would be held in Istanbul, the first such meeting since January 2011 when the two sides failed even to agree on an agenda. A senior Iranian figure recently spoke out against Turkey hosting the talks as once warm Iranian-Turkish relations have cooled in the past year over the Turkish position against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iran’s close Arab ally. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Iran has not moved “even one millimeter” from its nuclear program despite its financial struggles. “The sanctions are painful, hard,” Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem. “But will this bring about a halt or a retreat in the Iranian nuclear program? Until now, it has not happened.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday that the sanctions “may have caused us small problems but we will continue our path.” Iranian officials, however, say its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes. The latest U.S. intelligence assessments have not concluded that the regime has given the go-ahead to develop a nuclear bomb. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in February that possession of a nuclear bomb “constitutes a major sin” for Iran, reiterating a fatwa -- or religious edict -- that he made in 2005. Clinton revealed that she has been studying Khamenei’s fatwa, saying that she has discussed it with religious scholars, other experts and with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “If it is indeed a statement of principle, of values, then it is a starting point for being operationalized,” Clinton said in Norfolk.Hmmmmm.......Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't Nuclear armed Pakistan a Muslim country?Someone should tell them about the 'Fatwa'.Read the full story here.