TEHRAN: Turkey is still ready to host talks between Iran and the P5+1 group on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, Ankara has told the Islamic republic's nuclear chief, Al-Alam television reported Friday.
The Arabic-language Iranian channel said that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had spoken toIran's chief negotiator Sayeed Jalili about the talks slated for April 13 and 14 but whose location has yet to be confirmed.
"Relations betweenIranandTurkeyare strategic and brotherly.Turkeyis ready to welcome the next negotiations betweenIranand the P5+1 group," Al-Alam said Davutoglu told Jalili, citing a Supreme National Security Council source.
At the same time, Davutoglu was quoted as saying that "Iran's proposal to hold these talks inBaghdadis an intelligent one."
After originally proposing that the negotiations be held inIstanbul,Tehranthen suggested eitherBaghdadorBeijingas the venue.
On Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called onIranto act honestly after its about-face onIstanbulas the location for the talks.
"It is necessary to act honestly. They continue to lose prestige in the world because of a lack of honesty," Erdogan told a televised news conference in the latest salvo in a war of words between the two countries.
Erdogan spoke a day after Iranian officials announced thatTehranno longer wantedTurkeyto host the next round of talks, apparently because ofAnkara's stance on theSyriacrisis.
Iranlast held talks with the six powers --Britain,China,France,Germany,Russiaand theUnited States-- in January 2011 with no results.
Al-Alam reported thatAnkara's ambassador inTehran, Umit Yardim, had met Jalili's deputy Ali Bargheri "to provide explanations" about Erdogan's remarks.
"Turkey's president and prime minister have great esteem for the Islamic republic, its supreme leader (Ali Khamenei) and president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)," it reported Yardim as saying.
The station added that Yardim said "Turkeysupports the position of the Islamic republic in the nuclear issue."
Western powers andIsraelsuspectIran's programme of uranium enrichment masks a drive to manufacture nuclear weapons, butTehransays the sensitive work is for peaceful purposes only.
Neither theUnited StatesnorIran's arch-foeIsraelhave ruled out a military response toIran's nuclear ambitions.
For the past two yearsTurkeyhas mediated betweenIranand world powers on the nuclear issue. ButAnkara's increasingly strident stance againstIranallySyriaover more than a year of deadly violence there has poisoned relations.
Ties have also suffered sinceAnkaraagreed to implement a NATO-led early warning defence system last year, whichIrandeems is hostile to it.
Ankarahas also joined a US-imposed sanctions push to cut purchases of Iranian oil.
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