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Iran says to attend nuclear talks with 'new initiatives'

Xinhua, April 12, 2012

• Iranian officials said Wednesday that the Islamic republic will attend the upcoming nuclear talks with "new initiatives", but they voiced that Iran will not step back "an iota" from its rights.

  Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said Wednesday that Iran will offer "new initiatives" at nuclear talks with the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany (G5+1) slated for Saturday in Turkey's city of Istanbul.

  "Iran's representatives will participate in the negotiations with new initiatives and we hope that the G5+1 countries will also enter talks with constructive approaches," Jalili was quoted as saying by the local satellite Press TV.

  "We are ready to hold progressive and successful talks on cooperation," he said.

  Jalili called on the G5+1 to refrain from the pressures against the country, saying that "the language of threat and pressure against the Iranian nation has never yielded results," the report quoted him as saying.

  The Iranian official lauded the Islamic republic's accomplishments over the past year, particularly the production of fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor, and stated that the country should strongly defend its rights, according to Press TV.

  Meanwhile, according to local ISNA news agency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that the Iranian nation will not step back "an iota" from their rights, implying that in the upcoming nuclear talks Iran will not yield to Western pressures over its controversial nuclear program.

  On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said that Iran will defend its rights and will never allow anyone to forfeit its rights.

  Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Monday that his country will not accept any precondition to the upcoming nuclear talks between Iran and G5+1.

  On Sunday, the New York Times reported that the United States and its Western allies would set demands for the upcoming negotiations on Iran's disputed nuclear program. The demands include immediate closure of the fortified underground Fordo nuclear facility in central Iran and a freeze on 20-percent uranium enrichment.

  The last round of nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1 was held in Istanbul in January 2011 but ended up in vain. The round before that, in late 2010, was in Geneva.

  Just two days ahead of the resumption of nuclear talks, there are also other uncompromising gestures against Western countries from inside of Iran.

  According to Press TV, Iran said Wednesday that it has cut oil exports to Germany.

  The announcement by Iran came one day after it said that it had halted crude sales to Spain as a part of preemptive measures to counter sanctions endorsed earlier by the European Union (EU), said the report without detailing on the source.

  Also, Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said Tuesday that his country has already stopped oil exports to Greece.

  In February, Iran announced that it had stopped oil exports to British and French companies and threatened to possibly cut its oil exports to six other EU states, including Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

  In January this year, EU leaders endorsed the latest restrictive sanction measures on Iran's oil exports to be implemented from July 1.

  Also on Wednesday, Press TV reported Iran plans to cut imports from 100 European companies as part of its measures against the EU sanctions on Iran's oil exports.

  As a sign of power show, Iran's Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) will stage joint war games, semi- official Mehr news agency reported Wednesday.

  Iran's Army Commander Brigadier General Ahmadreza Pourdastan announced Wednesday that Iran's Armed Forces and the IRGC plan to hold a joint war game for the first time in the current Iranian calendar year which started on March 20, the report said.

  The commander, however, did not elaborate on the location and time of the maneuver.

  Pourdastan also said that Iranian Armed Forces will stage eight large-scale war games during the current Iranian calendar year in various parts of the country, according to the report.

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