TOKYO (AFP) - Iran is ready for immediate talks with world powers over a nuclear fuel swap deal, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview published in Japan on Friday.
Iran is "ready to resume in late August or in early September" talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany over an exchange of enriched uranium, Ahmadinejad told the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Sanctions Lead Toyota to Halt Iran Exports
Auto maker responds to international pressure over the Mideast country's nuclear program
By KAZUHIRO SHIMAMURA
TOKYO―Bowing to growing international pressure over Iran's nuclear-development program, Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it suspended car exports to the Middle Eastern nation.
"In light of the current situation" exports have been halted, a spokeswoman for the Japanese auto maker said. Toyota shipped about 220 cars to Iran so far this year until the suspension took effect in June.
Toyota's exports to Iran are few when compared with the 7.38 million vehicles that the company aims to sell world-wide during the current fiscal year.
Still, the move could help the world's largest car maker sidestep tarnishing its image even further in the U.S., which has been putting pressure on Japan to limit its business transactions with Iran. The U.S. continues to be Toyota's biggest market even after a massive vehicle recall earlier this year seriously dented the company's sales.
Toyota has exported its cars to Iran for years, mainly sport-utility vehicles for general consumers, through the affiliated trading firm Toyota Tsusho Corp. It shipped about 250 vehicles in 2009 and 4,000 vehicles in 2008.
In June, the United Nations Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, with the U.S. and the European Union implementing their own sanctions to sever corporate ties in the financial and resources sectors.
U.S. sanctions penalize foreign companies exporting banned materials and technologies to Iran by limiting their financial transactions and business activities in the U.S.
Other Japanese manufacturers have also become cautious about exporting their products to Iran. Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's largest steelmaker by output, said it consults Japanese government officials first to make sure that their products won't raise security concerns.
The steelmaker's shipments to Iran may decline in the future, a company official said. Nippon Steel doesn't disclose the amount it ships to the country.
U.S. researchers have named oil-and-gas producer Inpex Corp. and units of Japan's three largest banks―Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.―as engaging in business that could possibly run afoul of the U.S. sanctions.
Inpex initially owned a 75% stake in the Azadegan oil field in southwestern Iran and was set to be the operator of the field, but the National Iranian Oil Co. took over the bulk of the project's shareholding and operations in 2006 as the U.S. stepped up pressure on its allies to curb business ties with Iran.
While some other manufacturers could be forced into shrinking their remaining businesses with Iran, trading and resources companies say they currently don't have plans to change their operations.
Japan supported the U.N. sanctions, but Japan and Iran, one of the Asian nation's major oil suppliers, maintain relatively friendly ties.