On the eve of another round of talks between the world powers and Iran Friday in Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came out Wednesday against continuing to negotiate with Tehran as it moves forward with its nuclear development.
Before meeting visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Netanyahu said Iran must not be allowed to develop a model whereby it negotiates while in parallel it develops and threatens to use nuclear arms.
"There are many important issues in the Middle East," he said, "such as trying to reach peace with the Palestinians and other regional issues, but they are all overshadowed by Iran who believes it has the right to develop nuclear weapons, and continues to do so. Our main objective is to prevent that."
Eide said that Norway is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is concerned about Iran's lack of cooperation. "We are allowed to visit sites that are not important, but not those that we are interested in visiting," he said.
Meanwhile in Ankara,the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was "cautiously optimistic" about the nuclear talks, but said it was vital that Tehran responded to an offer put forward by major powers.
"I remain always cautiously optimistic. But I am also very clear that it is very important that we do get a response (from Iran)," Ashton told reporters in the Turkish capital when asked about the talks in Almaty.