Erdogan offers help with Iranisn nuclear talks

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has arrived in Tehran as the guest of Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi to hold contacts with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials, has once again defended the right of nations to pursue nuclear energy as long as it is for peaceful purposes. "No one has the right to impose anything on anyone with regards to nuclear energy, provided that it is for peaceful purposes," Erdogan said at a news conference after talks with Rahimi. "Everyone with commonsense opposes nuclear weapons," he added. Erdogan also reiterated Turkey's readiness to provide the venue for a new round of nuclear talks, saying that his talks in South Korea also revealed promising developments regarding the P5+1's [U.N. Security Council members plus Germany] stance towards having the meeting in Istanbul. "Based on the information we obtained in South Korea, there are also positive developments concerning the other side. I think we need to wait for their statement as well," Erdogan said. "We hope to make positive contributions to this process, because we have been following this case most closely as a third country," Erdogan added. Speaking in his part, Rahimi said that Iran firmly supported Istanbul hosting the upcoming talks and praised Turkey for its insistent support for countries' rights to acquire nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Rahimi added that the contacts held with Erdogan in Tehran further advanced the brotherhood between Iran and Turkey. Erdogan and Rahimi also announced readiness to increase the bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Iran to $35 billion by the end of 2015.