Iran nuclear talks to resume in Turkey, Davutoglu says

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday that Iran and P5+1 (five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council including the United States, China, France, Russian Federation and the United Kingdom, plus Germany) would resume negotiations on Iran's nuclear program in Turkey. Davutoglu said he had talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, about his recent visit to Tehran and that he now expects the talks with Tehran to resume as soon as possible." Both parties agreed in principle to hold talks in Turkey, and I hope negotiations will begin as soon as possible," the foreign minister was quoted as saying in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), published yesterday. Davutoglu reiterated in the interview that the US and European sanctions were not binding on Turkey and that Turkey should be exempted from the new sanctions. The foreign minister also said Turkey and Japan could sign an extensive preliminary agreement on nuclear cooperation, covering a wide array of areas ranging from medicine to agriculture in the spring. Davutoglu also said Turkey was interested in maintaining cooperation with Japan in the planned construction of a nuclear power plant. Turkey and Japan were in negotiations over Turkey's nuclear plans, but the talks were interrupted after a quake-triggered tsunami that crippled a main Japanese nuclear facility. Davutoglu said Turkey had trusted in Japan's "technology and reliability."