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Iran has reiterated its willingness to engage in talks on its controversial nuclear program, just days after another Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran was producing 20 percent enriched uranium.

Iranian speaker of parliament Ali Larijani, who as the country's former top nuclear negotiator carries significant influence, said on a visit to Turkey yesterday that Tehran was ready for "serious" talks on its nuclear program, the BBC reports. The talks would be hosted by Istanbul and involve the so-called P5+1 group 鈥� the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany.

鈥淩egarding the 5+1 talks, we have previously expressed Iran鈥檚 readiness to hold talks in order to resolve the nuclear issue,鈥� said Mr. Larijani, speaking just a day after scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in Tehran.

Given rising tensions related to increased international sanctions and the assassination of Mr. Roshan on Wednesday 鈥� the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist killed in the last two years, according to the Washington Post 鈥� many question whether the talks will move forward. It has been more than a year since Iran last discussed its nuclear goals with the P5+1, in Istanbul in January 2011, and Iran has not officially agreed to resume talks.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she is still awaiting response from Iran on a formal request sent in October inviting the country to talk, reports BBC News.

At issue is whether Iran is using the existence of a nuclear power program, which it is entitled to have, as a guise for developing nuclear weapons 鈥� a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.

The government insists it is only trying to generate nuclear power and radioactive medical isotopes, Agence France Presse reports, they have increased enrichment levels from 3.5 to 20 percent 鈥� still shy of the 90 percent needed for a weapon, but an important step down that road.

Olli Heinonen, a former senior official with the IAEA who is now at Harvard, wrote an op-ed in Foreign Policy yesterday outlining Iran鈥檚 potential nuclear path:

Mr. Heinonen says that聽 would take half a year to do with current Iranian technology, however, more advanced resources could cut that time in half. 鈥�...[B]uilding an atomic bomb is a complex endeavor that requires precision engineering capabilities that Iran may lack," he adds, "but it does mean that the country would be able to "break out" of its international obligations very quickly should it decide to do so."

However, some believe a more pressing issue is finding consistent communication channels between the US and Iran, before misunderstandings or miscommunications lead to an unintended military conflict. Yesterday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote:

Yet, despite rising tensions in Iran, some specialists say the current scenario is not necessarily unprecedented. Former US assistant secretary of State James Dobbins now in charge of RAND's International Security and Defense Policy Center and Alireza Nader, a RAND senior policy analyst, argue in a New York Times op-ed:

A high-level United Nations nuclear delegation is slated to visit Iran later this month in an effort to answer some of the remaining questions about covert nuclear weapons that have heightened international attention on Iran this month, reports AFP. It is unclear, however, whether the envoy will be limited to speaking with Iranian officials, or granted access to inspect sites included in the IAEA's Nov. 8 report.