“Tehran Held Upper Hand at Geneva Talks”

"Iran's actions are based on honesty. We did not have any secret (nuclear) work because we gave information (about the new plant) ahead of time" to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony in Tehran on Saturday defending Tehran's disclosing of the building of a new nuclear plant, in his first comments on Iran's atomic work since high-profile talks in Geneva.

"But the Western media keep following the policy that we are keeping secrets. They repeat it so much, until this campaign of lies seeps into people's heads." The IAEA revealed earlier this month that Iran had informed it on September 21 that Tehran was building a second uranium enrichment plant.

At the Geneva talks, Iran and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei agreed that Tehran will offer UN inspectors access to the new nuclear site under construction near the holy city of Qom in central Iran.

Iranian newspapers on Saturday praised Tehran's delegation led by chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and said the Islamic republic held the upper hand during the Geneva talks with six world powers. "Iran holds upper hand in Geneva talks," read the front-page lead headline of the government-run Iran newspaper. "Iran's solid logic, innovation and resistance were the key elements on which Tehran presented its argument," said the newspaper.

Jalili and officials of six world powers held on Thursday key talks over Tehran's nuclear program, at which Iran agreed to throw open its newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant to UN inspections. Some Tehran dailies put the emphasis on the direct US-Iran talks which also took place in Geneva. "Nuclear talks in Geneva held through the channel of Iran-US dialogue," was the front-page headline of a conservative daily, Jomhuri Eslami.

The reformist Aftab Yazd also had the same angle in its coverage of Thursday's discussions. "Geneva talks under the shadow of US-Iran talks," it said in its front-page headline. Iran's leading daily, Kayhan, was cautiously optimistic. Calling Tehran the "role model of resistance", the newspaper's editorial said it would be "hasty to make a judgment on the continuation of the negotiations at this stage." It also called upon the Iranian side to continue "emphasizing on global disarmament and not allow it to be treated as a secondary issue during future talks." The Geneva talks showed that "despite all negative political and media propaganda, the Islamic Republic of Iran with its innovative diplomacy can lead and guide the negotiations," Kayhan said.