5+1 needs to do consultations to advance talks: Supreme Leader’s advisor

TEHRAN, May 30 (MNA) – In order to help advance talks in Moscow it is necessary that world powers hold more consultations with each other to better coordinate their approach toward Tehran’s nuclear issue, suggest Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader. Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) held a new round of talks in Baghdad on May 23 and 24 and agreed to continue their negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program in Moscow on June 18 and 19. Velayati made the remarks on the sidelines of a conference on developments in the Middle East and the future of regional order held in Tehran on Tuesday. “The 5+1 group should hold more consultations with each other in order to help the Moscow talks produce more concrete results for the two sides,” Velayati, a former foreign minister, noted. “As expected, in Baghdad the other side was willing to continue negotiations, but they did not have a clear and comprehensive plan,” he said, adding, “We hope that the 5+1 will increase coordination between themselves before presenting their plans at the talks so that they can engage in negotiations more consistently and purposefully.” He also said that the six major powers should prove in practice that they have recognized Iran’s right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. On the issue of nuclear enrichment, Velayati said, “As far as I am informed about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s official policies, the system has no intention of halting uranium enrichment.”