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Iran Discussing Nuclear Program in Geneva

   VOA News 06 December 2010
   EU  foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, right, greets Saeed Jalili,
   Iran's chief negotiator in the foyer of the conference center near the
   Swiss mission to the United Nations in Geneva, 06 Dec. 2010

Photo: AP

   EU  foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, right, greets Saeed Jalili,
   Iran's chief negotiator in the foyer of the conference center near the
   Swiss mission to the United Nations in Geneva, 06 Dec. 2010

   Iran's  top  nuclear  negotiator  has  started talks with the European
   Union   foreign   affairs   chief   in   Geneva  to  discuss  Tehran's
   controversial nuclear program.
   Saeed  Jalili  is  meeting  with  the EU's Catherine Ashton along with
   senior  diplomats  from  the  United  States,  Russia, China, Britain,
   France and Germany.
   Iranian  media  say  Jalili  began  the  talks  by strongly protesting
   against  the  killing last week of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist.
   Separately in Greece, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said
   he  hopes the talks will continue in a "constructive manner" and reach
   a positive outcome.
   The two-day talks are the first time negotiators have met on the issue
   in  more  than  a  year. Expectations are low, with experts saying the
   biggest hope is that the recent meeting leads to more talks.
   The  latest  round  of  negotiations  come  a day after Iran's nuclear
   energy  chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said his country is "self-sufficient"
   in  the entire nuclear fuel cycle after producing a first batch of the
   uranium concentrate known as yellowcake.
   Salehi  made  the announcement on Iranian state television Sunday, but
   he did not say how much yellowcake had been produced so far.
   A  senior  fellow  at  London's  International Institute for Strategic
   Studies,  Mark  Fitzpatrick,  disputed  Salehi's statement that Iran's
   nuclear  program  is now self-sufficient. He says the country needs to
   find considerably more good quality uranium ore for that to happen.
   Fitzpatrick says experts believe Iran has already been able to produce
   yellowcake, but that the production is on a small scale.
   Iran  continues  to  insist its nuclear program is designed to produce
   energy,  not  make  weapons. But a White House official Mike Hammer in
   Washington  said  the recent announcement "calls into further question
   Iran's intentions and raises additional concerns."