Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was set to urge Iranian officials to move quickly toward resolving the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, diplomatic sources said Friday.
Gul planned to travel to Tehran to attend a regional conference of countries neighboring Iraq, and was expected to hold talks with Iranian counterparts on the sidelines. Among those he hoped to meet was Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, though no meetings had been confirmed.
Diplomatic sources said both sides bore responsibility for breaking the impasse, and that Iran in particular needed to respond to the incentives package put forward by the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.
Before heading to Tehran, Gul met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed El Baradei. Sources described that meeting as productive, noting that the two men held closely aligned views. El Baradei reportedly cautioned that the nuclear crisis was spilling over and complicating other regional issues, and suggested that progress on the nuclear file could help ease broader tensions in the region.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in July 2006, in its own words.