WTO to start membership talks with Iran
AFP, Geneva
The World Trade Organisation on Thursday decided to start membership talks with Iran, after the United States lifted its long-standing opposition to Tehran's bid, Iran's ambassador said. The move came just a day after negotiations in Geneva between Iran and Britain, France and Germany resulted in a diplomatic deal to continue the talks on Iran's controversial nuclear programme. The three European countries had offered to help Iran's bid for membership of the body that sets the rules for global commerce, in return for Tehran's cooperation on the nuclear issue. Asked if the ruling General Council of the 148-member WTO had decided to open negotiations, the Iranian ambassador to the WTO, Mohamed Reza Alborzi, said: "They took it." The US had opposed Iran's repeated bids to join the WTO since 1996, blocking it at 21 successive meetings of the General Council. "After nine years years they accepted that," Alborzi told journalists. "They blocked it for political reasons. They unblocked it apparently for political reasons."
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