Iranian FM: Nuclear talks with the West to take place April 13

Iran’s foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced Wednesday that talks between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany are expected to take place on April 13, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. He added that the venue of the talks would be determined in the next few days and that Turkey had offered to host them.

Salehi made the statement during a welcoming ceremony for Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Iran for a two-day visit.

Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Wednesday from South Korea, where he attended a nuclear security summit and also held talks with US President Barack Obama.

Referring to Erdogan’s visit to Iran and the relations between Tehran and Ankara, Salehi said the two were to discuss not only nuclear issues, but also bilateral cooperation.

The last round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers— US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — was held in Istanbul in January 2011 but ended without agreement.

in the past Iran has refused to even discuss international demands that it curb nuclear activities that could be used as part of a weapons program.

The main stumbling block remains uranium enrichment.

Iran says the expansion of its enrichment program is meant only to provide nuclear fuel, denies any interest in developing the atomic bomb, and says the right of countries to enrich nuclear power is enshrined in the Nonproliferation Treaty.

But the US and others say Iran’s nuclear record is causing concern. Tehran started enriching in secret, has refused offers of nuclear fuel shipments from abroad, and last year began enriching to higher levels that bring it closer to point where it could turn its program into producing fissile warhead material at an underground bunker that could be impervious to attack from the air.

The IAEA also has warned of growing suspicions, based on intelligence from the United States, Israel and elsewhere, that the Islamic Republic has hidden research and development on how to make and deliver a nuclear warhead — allegations that Tehran strenuously denies.

The US and its Western allies have agreed on a series of punishing sanctions in recent weeks designed to add weight to UN penalties on Iran because of its enrichment program, while attempting to persuade Israel that there is currently no need to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

At a nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea, President Barack Obama urged Iran on Monday to heed UN Security Council demands on an enrichment freeze.

“Iran’s leaders must understand that there is no escaping the choice before it,” Obama said. “Iran must act with the seriousness and sense of urgency that this moment demands.”