Turkye’s top diplomat announced this Friday that Iran is ready to negotiate and end the current standoff with the Western powers over their nuclear program. Turkey has decided to play a mediating role between the two nations. Two years ago it sought to create a deal where Iran would give nearly all of its stockpile of uranium in return for fuel rods for its medical research reactor, Iran agreed to this but then backed out. Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu said that this deal could be put together in a few days.
However the problem is that there is mutual distrust between Iran and the West. Economic sanctions imposed by the West on Iran have caused economic pain without slowing the production of enriched uranium in Iran. The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and several other officials have said that they are ready to resume negotiations on its nuclear program, however, no official request for talks from Iran. Turkey relies heavily on imported natural gas from Iran, so it will be happy to see this standoff with Iran end.
This standoff would remove a lot of strain between the West and Iran. It would also hopefully also reduce stress/tension in the Middle East, specifically with Israel. This could also help both sides, if Iran gained resources for their medical program, and the Western powers would no longer have to worry about the large amounts of enriched uranium in Iran.
Want to read the whole thing?: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/turkish-diplomat-iran-is-ready-to-cut-a-deal/2012/02/10/gIQANA164Q_story.html
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