The Washington Post published an article headlined "Iran: Sanctions won't stop nuclear drive". Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Tehran is making steady progress on its nuclear program, and warned that not even 100,000 UN Security Council resolutions will derail his country's nuclear ambitions. Ahmadinejad spoke days ahead of talks with world powers in Istanbul, Turkey. Tehran has hardened its position ahead of the meeting with the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, and Iranian officials have said they will not discuss their country's right to enrich uranium at the Jan. 21-22 talks.
Another article published by the Washington Post concerning Iran says that Iran told the Afghan government on Tuesday that it will stop blocking thousands of tanker trucks trying to move fuel into Afghanistan, the authorities announced. Tehran has said the ban was linked to its recent decision to slash domestic fuel subsidies in a bid to cut costs and boost an economy squeezed by international sanctions. Afghan officials said Iran also had expressed concern that fuel shipments were supplying NATO forces in Afghanistan. Iran supplies about 30 percent of the country's refined fuel, Afghan officials say. The remainder of the blocked shipments come from Iraq and Turkmenistan, but must transit through Iran.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the same theme in the article "Iran says it will allow fuel tanker trucks once more to enter Afghanistan". It says that the presidential statement informed that Iran has asked the Afghan government to confirm the country's fuel needs, and then it will allow that much fuel to enter. One of the reasons the tankers remained stuck at the border was because Afghanistan had refused to disclose the amount of its domestic fuel consumption, according to the semi-official Fars news agency in Tehran, which quoted a statement by the Iranian embassy in Kabul. The embassy statement said Iran had allowed 929 fuel tankers, carrying more than 70,000 tons of fuel, to enter Afghanistan since Dec. 20 and that future cross-border shipments would be based on mutual agreement between the two nations.
"Armenia: Turkey 'destroyed' reconciliation bid" is an article published by the Turkish information agency Hurriyet today. It says that Armenian President Serge Sarkisian has accused Turkey of "destroying" a bid to normalize relations between the two countries, saying reconciliation efforts were deadlocked. Sarkisian, who was in Greek Cyprus on Tuesday, said Turkey could not aspire to be a regional leader if it continued what he described as a policy of dictating and imposing its policies on its neighbors. Sarkisian told Greek Cypriot legislators in a speech on Monday that Turkey's "contradictory posture, inconsistent statements and groundless manipulation of the process" had scuppered an Oct. 2009 deal to reopen the countries' shared borders.
The Iranian information agency published an article headlined "Talks results depend on P5+1 approach'." A top Iranian diplomat says if major world powers adopt a logical and positive approach toward talks with Iran, good results could be expected to be achieved. The next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 will be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on January 21 and 22. Jalili rejected the claim that Iran was trying to buy time and said, "We announced at the Geneva talks that there is no need to halt negotiations, and talks could be continued." Iran and the representatives of the P5+1 held their last round of multi-directional talks in Geneva on December 6 and 7.
