Trilateral nuclear meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, Iran says

Jul 24, 2010, 16:31 GMT

Berlin - Tehran announced on Saturday that it will meet with Turkish and Brazilian officials this weekend to resume talks on Iran's nuclear swap deal, the ISNA news agency reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told ISNA that a meeting between the countries' three foreign ministers - Manouchehr Mottaki of Iran, Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey and Celso Amorim of Brazil - would be held on Sunday morning in the Turkish capital Istanbul.

The meeting will come one day before European Union foreign ministers reportedly plan to approve the 'toughest ever' sanctions against Iran during a meeting in Brussels.

According to a plan brokered last October by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) was to be exported to Russia for further enrichment and then to France for processing into fuel for a Tehran medical reactor.

After the involved sides failed to agree on how to implement the IAEA deal, Turkey and Brazil mediated and persuaded Iran during a meeting last May in Tehran to store 1,200 kilograms of its LEU in Turkey until the fuel for the research reactor is delivered.

The Tehran agreement was, however, rejected by world powers as insufficient. The United Nations Security Council then imposed a new resolution and fresh sanctions on Iran last month.

Although the swap deal did not settle the more than seven years of dispute over Iran's enrichment programme, it has been regarded by observers as a step to de-escalate the crisis and pave the way for renewed diplomatic efforts.

Tehran has rejected international accusations that it is working on a secret military programme and nuclear weapons research. It says that all of its nuclear projects fall within the Non-Proliferation Treaty and IAEA regulations.