Iran has finnaly agreed to come to the dialogue table since its inception of nuclear program. A development the West sees a bold step.

THE US and other world powers will next month meet Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator to test the seriousness of Iran’s proposal for talks and gauge its willingness to discuss its uranium enrichment programme.

The meeting will be the first time the US has engaged directly in talks with Iran since Barack Obama came to office.

The administration has kept up its offer of unconditional engagement in spite of the turmoil over the June 12th presidential election, which Iran’s opposition says was massively rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Javier Solana, European Union foreign policy chief, and Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili yesterday agreed to hold the meeting on October 1st. The encounter, at an as yet undisclosed venue in Europe, will involve senior diplomats from the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China.

Last week Iran delivered a five-page proposal that ignored the controversial nuclear programme that world powers are seeking to curb but offered instead talks on a range of global problems, including the world financial crisis and reform of the United Nations.

The US, however, said it would put the nuclear issue on the table, even if Iran did not address it in its proposal.

Iran insists that the nuclear file is “closed” and not subject to negotiations. But in what could be an opening for a nuclear discussion, Hassan Qashqavi, the foreign ministry spokesman, yesterday said Tehran’s recent proposal addresses the removal of global concerns, including nuclear disarmament.

The US and its European Union allies have warned Iran that it must immediately begin negotiations over its nuclear programme if it is to avoid imposition of a fresh round of economic sanctions this year.

Another EU diplomat said: “It’s important to meet, to try and probe where Iran stands. But all the mood music suggests a breakthrough is unlikely.”