Friday December 5th is the date that the European Union proposes to meet with Iran so as to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program. This is after Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief turned down Tehran’s preference to have a meeting in Istanbul, a refusal attributed to the fact that the country would be backed by Turkish allies on the sidelines.

In a letter that contained the rejection of the Turkish capital as a venue, Ashton stated that after deliberations with a six-nation contingent of negotiators, acceptable venues would either be Vienna or Switzerland. A European diplomat who prefers anonymity explained that the EU was not ready to have the talks in Istanbul as it would rather not have the entry of another regional power at this stage.

The meeting would be between Ashton and Iran’s top negotiator, Dr. Saeed Jalili. . The six nations in the negotiating group include the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany and will be represented in the proposed meeting by lower level negotiators.

It is still not clear whether Tehran is going to assent to reopen talks on its nuclear program, a topic which the letter states as a main topic of discussion. Talks had previously stalled over Tehran’s nuclear program where the United States and its allies believed that Iran’s civil nuclear energy program was a front for the secret development of weapons. The latter are advocating for the country to open up its facilities to scrutiny by international players and to stop uranium enrichment, which is a key process in its nuclear work.

However, Iran is adamant that enriching uranium to generate nuclear fuel is its sovereign right. In fact Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that his country is unwilling to discuss what he termed as its right to conduct nuclear activities.

A U.N-drafted proposal that required Iran to send most of its enriched uranium abroad for further processing and then have it sent back in the form of fuel rods for a Tehran research reactor which makes isotopes used in the treatment of cancer, led to a stalemate in negotiations a year ago.

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