Iran Says It’s Still Open to Talks

Iran said Sunday that it was open to further negotiations on its nuclear activities and, in an apparent softening of its position, said it was willing to discuss Moscow’s proposal to shift large-scale uranium enrichment operations to Russia.

A day earlier, an Iranian official at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna said the Russian proposal was “dead.” The comment was made after the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors voted to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose economic and political sanctions.

“The door for negotiations is still open,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the West “can’t do a thing” to stop Iran’s progress.

“The era of coercion and domination has ended,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. “Issue as many resolutions like this as you want and make yourself happy. You can’t prevent the progress of the Iranian nation.”

Uranium enriched to a low degree can be used for nuclear reactors, while highly enriched uranium is suitable for warheads. Iran insists it wants only to generate electricity, but the United States and some of its allies contend that Tehran is trying to build a weapon.

Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Sunday that Iran had ended all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, a step it had said it would take in the aftermath of the agency’s vote. The action, ordered by Ahmadinejad, was required by a law passed last year. It means Iran has resumed uranium enrichment.