'US seeking direct talks with Iran'

Washington wants to hold direct talks with Tehran, with which it broke ties 24 years ago, to discuss a number of issues including the Islamic state's nuclear programme, a senior Iranian security official said on Tuesday. Hossein Mousavian, one of Iran's chief nuclear negotiators, also said Iran had no objections to European Union efforts to involve Washington in negotiations aimed at dispelling international concerns about Iran's atomic ambitions.
But a Western diplomat in Tehran said talk of Washington joining the nuclear dialogue with Tehran was premature.
EU officials privately acknowledge that their efforts to persuade Tehran to give up sensitive nuclear activities, such as uranium enrichment, have little chance of success without full US support and involvement in the talks.
"The United States wants negotiations with Iran and definitely doesn't like having a mediator in between, even if the Europeans want to mediate," the official IRNA news agency quoted Mousavian as saying.
"But they are after comprehensive and conclusive talks which cover all disputed issues," he said.
US and Iranian officials have held occasional talks in the past on specific issues such as Afghanistan and Iraq. But talks broke down last year when Washington accused Iran of providing shelter for al Qaeda members behind bombings in Saudi Arabia.
"The Europeans have launched massive efforts to bring the United States into the nuclear negotiations," said Mousavian, who is secretary of the foreign policy committee on Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
"We have no objection to the Americans joining the Europeans in this process," he added.
Washington accuses Iran of trying to make atomic arms under the cover of a civil nuclear energy programme. Iran denies this.
"If the Americans want to hamper the Iran-EU co-operation, they can be effective and no one can deny it ... US interaction with Europe in this process is important from our point of view, nevertheless our partner is Europe not America," Mousavian said.
"I don't reject the possibility of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, but I cannot predict the future."
The Western diplomat in Tehran said the EU "has been very clear that negotiations would have a much bigger chance of success if the Americans put their shoulders behind it".