The new round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 comprising the US, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany began today, on Saturday, in Istanbul.
This is the second time Turkey hosts the negotiations between Tehran and the sextet. IRNA writes about this.
The Iranian delegation, headed by Supreme National Security Council Secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, arrived in Istanbul on Friday.
The second round of the talks is scheduled to hold in the Iraqi capital city, Baghdad.
The last meeting between the two sides took place in Istanbul in January 2011. Iran and the G5+1 had also held two rounds of multifaceted talks in Geneva in December 2010.
On the threshold of talks with G5+1, Jalili said on Wednesday that exerting pressure on Iran will backfire as the country believes in talks based on mutual cooperation.
He voiced Iran’s readiness for successful talks based on mutual cooperation and also expressed the hope that the other side would pursue the same policy in order to win the trust of the Iranian nation.
“The Iranian delegation is to take new initiatives in talks with G5+1 and we hope the other side will do the same,” he said.
G5+1 needed more time to get ready for the upcoming talks with Iran, he said.
Saeed Jalili has already met with European Union foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton over dinner in Istanbul on Friday night.
China and Russia are hopeful towards these negotiations.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov underscored diplomatic resolution of Iran‘s nuclear issue at a joint media interaction after their meeting here on Friday.
‘Russia is concerned about the condition of Iran‘s nuclear issue; Tehran is an old friend of Moscow and there is cooperation between us within the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organization,’ Lavrov added.
The Russian foreign minister noted that China, India and Russia which form the so-called RIC group of countries have consensus on diplomatic resolution of Iran‘s nuclear issue.
‘Iran‘s nuclear issue should be solved based on UN Security Council and IAEA decisions,” he added
Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed the West’s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.
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