Iran Describes Moscow Talks as “Serious, Constructive”

Iran’s Deputy Chief Negotiator Ali Baqeri announced that Iran and the six world powers have held “serious and constructive” negotiations in their meetings in Moscow today.

Speaking to reporters after the end of the first day of the talks in Moscow, Baqeri, who is also Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Undersecretary, said that the topics and points raised by Iran both in the morning and the afternoon sessions “received the world powers’ attention”.

He said that after today’s talks, EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton who leads the delegations of the six world powers thanked Iran for defining its stances and asked for some time, until tomorrow, in a bid to study the proposals and the comments that Iran has had about the Group 5+1’s proposals during the today talks.

Baqeri added that the talks will be continued tomorrow at 12:00 hours local times.

Iran’s chief negotiator and Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Saeed Jalili is leading the Iranian team of negotiators, while delegations of the six world powers are headed by EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton.

The talks are expected to last for two days.

Iran and the Group 5+1 held several rounds of talks in Baghdad last month. The Baghdad meeting came after Iran and the six world powers resumed talks in Istanbul, Turkey, in April.

Both Tehran and the so-called Group 5+1 – comprising UN Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany -offered their own packages of proposals at the last round of talks in Baghdad in May.