BRUSSELS: Iran is ready to hold its first talks with world powers in more than a year about its disputed nuclear program any time after Nov. 10, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Friday. The meeting with a group of six world powers would be the first in the long-running dispute since October 2009 and also the first since the United Nations, the United States and European Union imposed tougher sanctions on Iran this year. Western officials say the punitive measures are increasingly damaging the economy of the world No. 5 oil producer and that this may persuade it to agree to curb sensitive atomic activity. Iran has dismissed the impact of sanctions and shown no sign of backing down over a uranium enrichment drive. It says it has a sovereign right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but the West suspects it aims to build unlawful atomic bombs. The six global powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – want Iran to suspend enrichment work which can have both civilian and military uses, in exchange for trade and diplomatic benefits on offer since 2006. Ashton said she had received a letter from Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in which he agreed to meet “in a place and on a date convenient to both sides” after Nov. 10. Earlier this month, Ashton invited Jalili to hold three days of talks in Vienna from Nov. 15 to 17. “Dr Jalili ... is agreeable to begin discussions after Nov. 10 and wants to agree the time and place. I think this is a very significant move,” she told reporters at an EU summit. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed Iran's signal, but said the content of the talks was what mattered. “The key thing is that these are talks of substance: this is what all participants will be measured by,” he said in Berlin.
