Hungarian FM optimistic about results of Iran-G5+1 talks

Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi hailed the new Iranian government's approach for constructive interaction with the international community, and hoped for positive results in the upcoming talks between Iran the Group5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council member plus Germany) in Geneva. Martonyi said that he was optimistic about the outcome of the nuclear talks between Tehran and the world powers which is to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 15-16. He said Hungary has maintained its economic ties with Iran despite sanctions imposed on the country by western powers, the Islamic republic news agency reported. As a member of the European Union, Budapest would try to help remove the anti-Iran sanctions through Tehran’s closer cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Martonyi stressed. Iran and the world powers held a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in September and are due to meet again in Geneva on October 15-16. On April 6, Iran and the six world powers wrapped up two days of intensive negotiations in Almaty, but without making any major breakthrough. Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. 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.