Iran against waste of time in P5+1 talks

Iran voices opposition to any waste of time in talks between Tehran and the six world powers, better known as the P5+1, reaffirming Iran’s preparedness for negotiations.

“We shouldn’t let time go by, and the Islamic Republic [of Iran] has constantly announced its readiness for talks,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters at the end of his visit to Kazakhstan on Friday. Salehi was on an official visit to Kazakhstan to attend the “Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference” with a focus on Afghanistan.

“[Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan] Nazarbayev announced his country’s readiness to host the Almaty 3 meeting…,” the Iranian foreign minister added.

If the P5+1 countries announce their readiness to continue the negotiations with Iran, both sides can proceed with their discussions in the Almaty 3 talks, he underlined.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Russia, China, Britain, France, and the US — plus Germany, have held several rounds of talks on a range of issues, with the main focus being Iran’s nuclear energy program.

The two sides wrapped up their latest round of negotiations on April 6 in the Kazakh city of Almaty. An earlier meeting had also been held there on February 26-27.

EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, represented the group of six powers while Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Saeed Jalili headed the Iranian negotiating team.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted towards nuclear weapons production.