Ashton gives 12 month Iran timeframe
Security Council members and EU meet with Iran's leaders
Ashton gives 12 month Iran timeframe
27/09/2013 - 4:34pm
The EU's diplomatic chief said that twelve months is a "good timeframe for implementation of things on the ground" following meetings with the newly installed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the country's foreign minister and ministers from the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China to discuss the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities.
"It was a substantial meeting, with a good atmosphere, energetic," Ashton said of the meeting of foreign ministers of the six and Iran.
Tehran says it wants to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes only but for years the West has been weary of Iran's nuclear development plans.
But with the installment of moderate insider Rouhani in the Presidency this year, Iran has also been making conciliatory noises.
The UN nuclear agency says it has had "very constructive" talks with Iran, whose new president says he wants a deal over the country's nuclear programme within six months.
"We had a discussion about how we would go forward with an ambitious timeframe, to see whether we can make progress quickly. I am pleased that we have agreed to meet in Geneva on the 15 and 16 of October, to pursue the agenda, to carry on from today's meeting and to hopefully move this process forward," the EU's top diplomat said.
Ashton said that the substantial part of the discussion was to have an opportunity to hear from the Foreign Minister of Iran on his thinking about how to move forward and, within that, to look at what kind of timetable and to begin the conversation about where this will all end up.
"I am very ambitious for what we can do, but we all know that we have to be very practical in translating political ambition into what does that mean for the effective work that we do on the ground; that is what we really need to focus on now," she said.
According to the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, a confidence-building measures proposal has been put on the table and Iran can either agree or file its own proposal.
"The purpose of today was to set the tone and to begin to think about the framework," said Ashton which did not give details of the proposal in a statement released to the press.
The best guarantee of the future, Ashton said, is "to see things really happen on the ground, really make a difference."
Ashton also talked of her meeting with Rouhani and EU President Herman Van Rompuy.
"The question is how far you can go in three months or six months or twelve months, and twelve months is a good timeframe to think about some serious implementation on the ground," she said.
"The good news is that there are talks about the timetable. In other words that we are hearing figures being talked around as possibilities for the kind of timeframe in which things can happen, and that's of itself a very positive note." new europe
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