The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has described the Almaty talks between Iran and the P5+1 of world powers as positive, urging Iran to respond to international concerns about its nuclear energy program.

In a Saturday interview with Austrian Profil magazine, Ban said the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 -- Russia, China, France, the US and the UK plus Germany -- have been useful.

He stressed that confidence building efforts by Iran would help resolve the nuclear disagreement.

Iran and the P5+1 held their latest round of talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 26-27. The two sides agreed to meet in Almaty again on April 5-6 for the next round of negotiations after “expert-level” talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on March 17-18.

The US, the Israeli regime and some of their allies falsely accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation and argues that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted toward military objectives.
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