AFP,  Amman, January 22, 2011  – French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Saturday that Tehran’s conditions were fully to blame for the failure of talks between world powers and Iran on its controversial nuclear programme.
The Islamic republic had set ’totally unacceptable preconditions’ which eliminated any chance of progress at the Friday-Saturday talks in Istanbul, Alliot-Marie, on a Middle East tour, told reporters in Amman.
’Their conditions called for the lifting of sanctions and the right to enrich (uranium). This blocked everything,’ she told a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
’Because of lack of Iran’s cooperation, the International Atomic Energy Agency is still unable to certify that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively civilian and peaceful.’
France ’regrets the attitude of the Iranian delegation’ that had ’made it impossible for any discussion of concrete steps to move forward,’ the minister said, adding however that ’finding a diplomatic solution’ was still possible.
Alliot-Marie warned even tougher sanctions could be slapped on Iran, which already faces four sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment for its nuclear programme.
’We hoped to have constructive discussions and extensive discussions with Iran in Istanbul over its nuclear programme,’ she said.
Judeh for his part said ’the only option to settle this matter is through diplomatic channels.’
’Every state in the world has the right to obtain nuclear energy for peaceful use,’ he said.
World powers failed to persuade Iran to take steps to ease suspicions over its nuclear programme as the defiant Islamic republic insisted on uranium enrichment.
The two days of talks in Istanbul between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group ended without progress and no new meeting was scheduled to tackle concerns that Tehran is secretly developing an atomic bomb.