Iran And Powers To Resume Nuclear Talks In April
Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the powers of the Group 5 +1 (United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) will resume on April 13 but the venue has yet to be determined, said head of Iranian diplomacy Ali Akbar Salehi on Wednesday.
The date for the negotiations was scheduled for April 13, said Salehi, who was quoted by the official IRNA news agency, adding that “the negotiations will be fixed in the coming days”.
Turkey “has expressed its readiness to host the negotiations and remains one of the options. My personal view is that Istanbul is the best place,” he said, according to IRNA.
“Turkey is ready to host future talks but everything depends on an agreement between Iran and the Group 5 +1,” said the Turkish ambassador in Tehran, Umit Yardim, also quoted by IRNA.
Iran and the Group 5 +1 powers declared their readiness to resume nuclear negotiations, broken off since the last meeting in Istanbul held in January 2011. On Tuesday, the office of Catherine Ashton, the head of European diplomacy, told AFP that there was still no agreement on the place and the date of negotiations.
Salehi made these comments while welcoming at the airport in Tehran Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived as head of an important ministerial delegation on a two-day official visit. He is expected to talk with Iranian officials on bilateral relations, and the regional situation, including Syria, where Iran and Turkey are in opposition, and the Iranian nuclear issue.
Turkey, which has offered to host the next nuclear talks between Iran and the powers, has strengthened its economic and trade relations with Iran in recent years and opposes new U.S. and European sanctions against Tehran.
