5+1 says talks with Iran should yield ‘concrete’ results

TEHRAN, March 10 (MNA) – The 5+1 group (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) issued a statement on Thursday saying that the next round of talks with Iran should produce “concrete” results. The statement was read out by China’s ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency at a closed-door session of the IAEA Board of Governors. “We call on Iran to enter, without pre-conditions, into a sustained process of serious dialogue, which will produce concrete results,” the statement read, Al Jazeera reported. The major powers also wrote that their readiness to negotiate was “on the understanding that these talks will address the international community’s long-standing concerns and that there will be serious discussions on concrete confidence building measures.” European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the major powers in nuclear negotiations with Tehran, sent a letter to Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili on March 6 and offered to resume talks with the Islamic Republic. No decision has been made on the date and venue for talks. In late January 2011, a new round of talks between Iran and the major powers was held in Istanbul, but no date was set for the next round of negotiations. After the end of the Geneva talks in early December 2010, Jalili announced that Iran and the 5+1 group had agreed that the next rounds of talks should focus on common ground for cooperation. However, the 5+1 group reneged on the agreement, and after the end of the Geneva talks, Ashton read out a statement saying the nuclear issue would be the focus of the next round of talks, a move which drew strong criticism from Iranian officials. The main bone of contention between Tehran and the West is Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Iran says all its nuclear activities are totally peaceful, and, as an IAEA member and a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory, it has the legal right to produce nuclear fuel for its research reactors and nuclear power plants.