Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a meeting at the Iranian presidency in Tehran. Erdogan Reiterates Turkey’s readiness to host Iran-West talks.

Tehran / NationalTurk – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan re-declared Turkey’s enthusiasm and readiness for hosting the upcoming round of talks between Iran and the six world powers amid speculations of possible USA, Israel joint assault on Iran.

Turkey offers help with Iranian nuke talks with the Western countries accusing Iran for developing nuclear weapons by enriching uranium in various facilities scattered across Iran, while refuting ‘ imposition ‘. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met for 1.5 hours with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the second day of a official visit to Tehran on Thursday.

Iran Nuclear Talks : Turkey is eager to host talks

The meeting occurred behind closed doors. The press wasn’t allowed inside and no statement has been made regarding its content yet following the Erdogan Ahmadinejad meeting. The gathering was previously scheduled for Wednesday evening but was postponed to today after Iranian leader Ahmadinejad reportedly fell ill.

Speaking to international reporters at a joint press conference with Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi in Tehran on Wednesday, Erdogan stated, ‘ We had already proposed hosting the talks in Istanbul and the Iranian party too has announced its readiness to that end.’ Erdoğan defended Iran’ s right to acquire nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and rejected any outside ‘ imposition ‘ to preclude western countries from doing so. Turkish PM Erdoğan and Iranian Vice-PresidentRahimi also discussed trade ties between Turkey and Iran and agreed to enhance them. Erdoğan and Rahimi also declared readiness to raise the bilateral trade volume from the current $16 billion to $35 billion by the end of 2015.

Turkish PM Erdogan helds series of official talks in Iran

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also met with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and is expected to have talks with Iranian  supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei late on Thursday after his meeting with Ahmadinejad finishes.

“We have also had talks with the other party to talks and are waiting for results of the consultations and their viewpoint. Our view is based on helping process of the talks,” Erdogan declared his intentions towards the resolution on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran Nuclear weapons : Turkey respects Iran’s Nuclear program if peaceful

Meantime, the Turkish premier underlined that no force should be used against any country pursuing a peaceful nuclear program. Turkey, which calls for a negotiated settlement to an international dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, is willing to host the next round of talks between Iran and major international powers – the P5+1 group of US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

Any wise man is against the use of nuclear technology as arms and there should be no opposition to peaceful nuclear activities, he reiterated.

Iran Nuclear Talks : Turkey wants to host Iran nuclear talks in Istanbul

Speaking ahead of talks with Ahmadinajed, Erdoğan said the venue of the talks is still unclear. Iran supports talks taking place in İstanbul while the P5+1 group is seeking an European venue. On Wednesday, Erdoğan has said there were “positive developments” regarding the P5+1’s stance towards having the talks in İstanbul.Istanbul was the venue of the last round of talks between the two sides.

Iran and the G5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) held two rounds of multifaceted talks in Geneva in December 2010 and in the Turkish city of Istanbul in January 2011.

While Tehran says it is ready to continue the talks based on common grounds, it has stressed that it will not give up any of its rights including enriching uranium and development of nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

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