‘Iran, G5+1 hold substantial talks at UN’

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says Iran and the six major world powers have held substantial talks at the UN, setting the stage for a new round of negotiations next month to resolve the West’s dispute with Tehran over its nuclear energy program.

Ashton made the remarks on Thursday during a news conference after the foreign ministers of Iran and the 5+1 group — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, plus Germany — held unprecedented talks at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Ashton said: “It was a substantial meeting, good atmosphere, energetic. We had a discussion about how we would forward with an ambitious timeframe to see if we could make progress quickly. We have agreed to meet in Geneva on the 15 and 16 of October and to hopefully move this process forward.”
The EU foreign policy chief also said that Iran could either respond to the proposals of the 5+1 group or offer its own before next month’s talks.
The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.
On August 6, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for “serious talks with foreign parties” on the nuclear issue.