Cyprus stresses Iran's right to access peaceful nuclear technology

Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulidis underlined Iran’s rights to access nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and called on the international community to respond to Tehran’s positive steps regarding its nuclear program. In a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the 68th annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, the Cypriot foreign minister said that Iran like any other country has the right to peaceful nuclear technology and no one can deprive Tehran of its right. The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, pointed to Cyprus’s logical stances, and called for expansion of ties with Cyprus. On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Iran and the six world powers said they were pleased with their New York discussions over the settlement of the Iran-West nuclear standoff, adding that they have set a new round of negotiations for next month in Geneva. The top diplomats of the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) described their meeting with Zarif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly as "a change in tone". European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who chaired the meeting, told reporters it had been “a substantial meeting. Good atmosphere. Energetic”. She said the two sides had agreed on an "ambitious timetable" to address Western concerns about Iran's nuclear program and would meet again in Geneva on October 15-16 “to pursue the agenda to carry on from today's meeting and to hopefully move this process forward”. Ashton also added a note of caution, saying it was important to focus on "effective work that we do on the ground." In May, Iran and the six world powers wrapped up their 4th round of talks after two days of intensive negotiations in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Iranian officials have always shrugged off the sanctions, saying that pressures make them strong and reinvigorate their resolve to further move towards self-sufficiency. Russia unlike the western members of the G5+1(UK, US, France, China, Russia plus Germany) reiterates on the necessity for recognition of Iran's right of uranium enrichment. The senior Russian officials have on several occasions emphasized the need for progress in Iran's nuclear case and the relevant negotiations on the basis of mutual cooperation and respect. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic. Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical. Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West's hardline stance on Tehran. Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the Southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.