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22 January 2014 - 14:32

Russia says representatives from Iran and six world powers have begun preparing a new round of talks over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program at a coordination meeting in Geneva.

“They started preparing yet another cycle of full-format negotiations. The atmosphere is businesslike,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday, referring to Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany.

Earlier On Monday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, who is also a senior nuclear negotiator, said Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany may resume talks in February.

Araqchi said it had previously been agreed that, with the start of the implementation of the first step of the interim nuclear deal clinched between Iran and the six major world powers in Geneva last November, negotiations on the final step would begin shortly.

He said that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union Foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the six countries involved in the negotiations with the Islamic Republic, had to talk on the time, venue, level, and manner of the negotiations.

On Monday, Iran suspended 20-percent uranium enrichment as part of its nuclear deal inked with the six powers in Geneva on November 24, 2013. Iran also started the process to dilute and oxidize its 196-kg stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium.
 

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