Tehran:
Iran and the European Union agreed on Tuesday to a date and time for nuclear talks in Geneva next week, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted in a speech that Iran would not give "one iota" in the discussions.
The meeting between Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, and Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, would be the first high-level negotiations in more than a year and comes amid revelations, in leaked diplomatic communications, of widespread concern among Iran's Arab neighbors about its nuclear program. The agreement on when to hold the meeting also came a day after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters in northern Iran on Tuesday, Mr. Ahmadinejad took a hard stance ahead of the talks. Iran had always been willing to talk "under the conditions of justice and respect," he said, but added that "the people of Iran will not back down one iota" on demands to curb the nation's nuclear program, which Iran claims is directed only at nonmilitary purposes.
Mr. Ahmadinejad appeared to frame the Geneva meeting, scheduled for Dec. 6 and 7, in terms of the economic sanctions imposed by the Western powers. "I advise that if they want to get results from these talks, they must put aside their outdated behavior" in order to talk "about international cooperation, solving the problems of humanity and about economic and nuclear issues," he said in a speech that was broadcast on state television.
In the view of American and European officials, Iran's new willingness to engage in talks may indicate that new and tougher sanctions, approved this year, are having an effect on its troubled economy.
Officials from the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain are expected to attend the meeting, although Ms. Aston said she would negotiate with Iran "on behalf" of those six nations, her office said in a statement confirming the meeting.
On Monday, attackers riding motorcycles killed one prominent Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another in separate bombings in Tehran. The scientist who survived, Fereydoon Abbasi, is on the United Nations Security Council's sanctions list for ties to the nuclear effort, and the highly targeted nature of the attacks led to accusations of a renewed effort by the United States and Israel to disrupt Iran's program.
In diplomatic cables revealed by the Web site WikiLeaks on Sunday, Arab allies of the United States, including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, candidly voiced concerns over the leadership of Mr. Ahmadinejad and Iran's path on nuclear weapons.