Crucial Iran summit to be held in Turkey

The new round of Iran nuclear talks will be held in Istanbul on April 13, says US Secretary of State Clinton. The US wants concrete results from the talks

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conferred with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan about his nuclear discussions with Iran, a day after she declared that nuclear talks between Iran and world powers will take place in Istanbul on April 13.

Erdogan recently went to Iran on a two-day state visit and held a series of discussions with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ali Ayatollah Khamanei on its disputed nuclear program. Erdogan was expected to give Clinton his take on where Iran stands, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity ahead of the meeting.

“Our policy is one of prevention, not containment. We are determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Clinton told a press conference in the Saudi capital after talks with her Gulf Arab counterparts, confirming the venue for the talks will be Istanbul, as Iran prefers. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced the date on March 28. He said at the time that Iran considered Istanbul -- the location of the previous round of talks, which collapsed in January 2011 -- the “best place,” but that other options were still being discussed.



/Hurriyet Daily News/