FM Attends ECFR Joint Meeting

Tehran, Oct 6, IRNA – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday attended the third joint meeting of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). The meeting was held behind closed doors and in the absence of media attended by a number of Foreign Ministry officials and members of the visiting ECFR delegation. The gathering was conducted in line with the policy of closer ties with western research centers and think tanks to reach further mutual understanding between Iran and western countries. ECFR is the first pan-European think tank. Launched in October 2007, its objective is to conduct research and promote informed debate across Europe on the development of coherent and effective European values based foreign policy. In a recent report published by the ECFR, European countries were urged to make use of the chance created following the Geneva deal, which was reached in November 2013 between Iran and the Group 5+1, and do not wait for the US to take the initiative and remove the anti-Iran sanctions. The ECFR's report had referred to the present opportunity as a real chance to completely settle Iran's nuclear dispute. Meanwhile, two senior members of Iran's negotiating team Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi attended the ECFR's annual meeting in Rome, Italy, last June and briefed the gathering on Iran's nuclear policies as well as its stance regarding major regional developments. Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini was one of the figures who had met the Iranian diplomats in Rome and expressed hope that the nuclear problem would be solved through peaceful means soon./end