Turkish FM to Visit Iran for Nuke Talks
Turkey's foreign minister will visit Iran on Wednesday for talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, his ministry announced amid rising regional tensions.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will hold two-day consultations with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi about Iran's nuclear program as well as developments in Iraq and Syria, the foreign ministry in a statement.
The visit comes amid rising tensions, with Iran holding naval war games and warning arch-foe the United States to keep an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf and Washington dismissing the warning.
Tehran's sharp rhetoric came after U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law tough new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and financial sector.
The measures are in addition to four sets of United Nations sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear activities, and the European Union is expected to announce further sanctions of its own at the end of January.
Nuclear negotiations between Iran and major Western powers were suspended for a year after the latest round of talks took place in Istanbul in January 2011.
The West suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge that Tehran denies.
Source: Agence France Presse
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