Iranian, World Powers Chief Negotiators to Continue Talks This Month

The two top negotiators are due to exchange views over the latest stances expressed by the two sides' experts in their July 3 meeting in Istanbul.

In case Jalili and Ashton come to the conclusion that the differences between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members - Russia, China, Britain, France and the US - plus Germany) have reduced and the gap between the two sides is closing, they will embark on arranging a next round of multilateral talks, sources said.

After a 15-month hiatus, Iran and the Group 5+1(the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) held several rounds of talks this year, with the latest one in Moscow on June 18-19.

At the end of the Moscow talks, Iran's top negotiator Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced that they would hold a meeting after talks between their deputies and also a meeting between the two sides' experts.

In early July, Iran and the six world powers ended two days of talks by technical experts who discussed the details of the two sides' proposals to end the nuclear standoff between Tehran and the six world powers.

Later in July, the deputy lead negotiators of Iran and the six world powers, Ali Baqeri and Helga Schmidt, met in Istanbul to exchange views over the results of the experts' talks.

Also, Jalili and Ashton had a phone conversation on August 2, during which the former reminded the constructive and initiative stances presented by Tehran in Istanbul, and urged Group 5+1 to provide a clear response in this regard.

In response, Ashton hailed Iran's practicable proposals, and pledged to discus Iran's viewpoints with the representatives of the world powers to prepare a justifiable response.
isna/281