Turkey can help world powers understand Iran as it is familiar with Tehran's nuclear programme, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday. After holding talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, Mottaki said Ankara was an "important" consultant on Tehran's nuclear programme. "Turkey is familiar with Iran's positions which can help others to understand Iran better," Mottaki said at a joint news conference with Davutoglu.
"This can be of good help to clear ambiguities of others. We do not give special names such as mediator to consultations, but our Turkish friends are important consultants" on the nuclear issue. Davutoglu is scheduled to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili later on Tuesday. Turkey, which has good relations with its neighbour Iran, has offered to host the exchange of Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) with 20 percent enriched uranium to be supplied by world powers to Tehran as part of a UN-drafted deal.
On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said several months of efforts by Ankara to broker a compromise had yet to produce results. Tehran and world powers are locked in a stalemate over the UN-drafted deal which envisages shipping out Iran's LEU to France and Russia for further conversion into higher grade uranium. Iranian officials want the exchange to take place inside the Islamic republic, a condition opposed by world powers. The talks further deteriorated after Tehran announced last week that it has started to process the 20 percent enriched uranium.