A new round of nuclear talks between Western countries and Iran in Istanbul were “constructive” so far, “different from the previous meeting," an E.U. diplomat has said, adding that the parties were discussing the “core issues.”“We are satisified with the constructive atmosphere in last two and half hours, compared to the last time when they did not engage in talks, saying they had preconditions. That was not the case this time. There was a discussion this time about the issues,” Michael Mann, spokesman for E.U. Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters today on the sidelines of the meeting in Istanbul.
P5+1,(six world powers - the United States, Russia, China,Germany, France and Britain ) met senior Iranian officials for the first time in 15 months for talks aimed at calming deepening tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.
Asked if E.U. sanctions aganist Iran has played a role on Tehran to resume talks in its nuclear program, Mann answered positively and said, “We believe our sanctions are justified in the light of what IAEA [International Atomec Energy Agency] has achieved.”
“We have a twin-track approach, which involves discussions and sanctions, so we think it is an effective policy,” Mann added.
Following lunch, P5+1 members would have bilaretal talks with Iranian representatives later in the day, the spokesperson said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also held a bilateral talk with Ashton and was having a meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
The last time Iran met with the P5+1, in Jan. 2011 in Istanbul, the talks went nowhere, as Tehran refused to broach the nuclear issue.
"What we are here to do is to find ways in which we can build confidence between us and ways in which we can demonstrate that Iran is moving away from a nuclear weapons program," Ashton said in a statement today.
Jalili met Ashton at a dinner yesterday and told the E.U. represenhtative that he hoped the major powers would "win the Iranian nation's trust in this round of negotiations," as reported by Iran's state television. (hurriyetdailynews)
