Iran expects to hold more nuclear talks: Salehi

* Foreign minister says Iran’s right to uranium enrichment had to be recognised from outset

* tehran to keep Hormuz open as long as it serves its interests

VIENNA: Iran expects to hold more talks with world powers on its nuclear programme following an inconclusive round of negotiations in Istanbul earlier this month, its foreign minister said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.

The failure of the talks to secure a breakthrough over Tehran’s uranium enrichment, which the West fears is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, has raised international concerns that Israel may carry out a military strike. “I can’t say it with certainty but if everything proceeds normally then there should be further negotiations,” Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Austria’s Der Standard. “A breakdown (in talks) is in nobody’s interests. The gaps can only be closed through talking.”

Salehi said, however, that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment had to be recognised from the outset. “It’s a matter of principle,” he said. Tehran denies it is attempting to develop atomic weapons, saying its nuclear programme is for civilian energy purposes. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that Iran’s proposals made in talks with the so-called P5+1 group of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany were “non-starters”.

Israel is widely thought to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons capability and, citing threats made by Iran’s leaders to destroy it, has made it clear it would attack the Islamic state if diplomacy failed. Salehi said Iran did not want to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, a key waterway at the neck of the Gulf through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass. “The Persian Gulf is a lifeline for Iran and for the region and for the international community. We are rational. We do not want to cut off this lifeline and cause suffering,” he said. “But if we are forced, then Iran must do everything to defend its sovereignty and its national interests.”

Military analysts have cast doubt on Iran’s willingness to block the slender waterway, given the massive US-led retaliation it would likely incur.

Iran will keep the vital Straits of Hormuz shipping lane open as long as the waterway served its interests, a military commander was on Monday quoted as saying. Iranian politicians and officials have often said that Iran could block the Straits - the neck of the Gulf through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil exports passes - in response to sanctions or military action.

Such a move would risk a military response from the United States and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Reuters in July that Iran was unlikely to follow through on the threat unless its own vessels were denied use of the Straits. “Iran’s goal is for everyone in the world to use the Straits of Hormuz but as long as it does not harm Iran’s interests and in that case our reaction would definitely be different,” IRNA news agency quoted senior Revolutionary Guards commander Masoud Jazayeri as telling Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam television. “Most military experts know that if Iran decides to close the Straits of Hormuz, no country or countries would be able to confront this move,” he added, according to IRNA.

Experts say that a heavy Western naval presence in the Gulf and surrounding area is a big impediment to any attempt to block the waterway. Israel and the United States have threatened military action against Iran unless it abandons nuclear activities which the West suspects are intended to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. reuters

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