P5+1's Baroness Ashton to Iran: "Ready for talks!"

"...Ashton “wrote a letter to Mr. Jalili, (link) her counterpart in the P-5+1 process, making clear the readiness of the group to meet,” the senior administration official said. “Her deputy has tried to establish telephone contact with Mr. Jalili’s staff. And so far, at least, there’s been a resounding silence in response to those efforts.”

Iran has recently indicated it may prefer to work not through the P5+1 but through the so-called Vienna Group, comprised of the U.S., France, Russia and the UN atomic watchdog agency, the IAEA, in Vienna. It is the Vienna Group that engaged in technical discussions with Iran last year over a possible fuel swap deal to provide nuclear medical isotopes to serve Iran’s nuclear medical needs. But those talks broke down. And now the Vienna Group has written the IAEA that any new nuclear fuel swap deal would need to be updated to take account of the fact that Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium has grown.

They would also insist on a halt to the higher enrichment of uranium that Iran began to undertake earlier this year citing domestic nuclear medical needs.

Noting the P5+1’s unusually full-throated call Wednesday for resumed talks with Iran, one nuclear non-proliferation specialist observed that “the point seems to be to communicate to Iran that Ashton is the address” for getting a dialogue going. ..."