Iran, P5+1 end deputy-level talks in Istanbul

The deputies to the chief negotiators of Iran and the P5+1 have ended their talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul, and the top negotiators of both sides have agreed to be in contact.

Ali Baqeri, the deputy to Saeed Jalili, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and Helga Schmid, the deputy to Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, led the Tuesday meeting in Istanbul.

In a brief statement, a spokesman for Ashton said, “as agreed in” the Moscow round of negotiations, “the next stage will be a contact between… Ashton and Dr. Jalili.”

The Tuesday meeting comes three weeks after Iran and the P5+1, comprising Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany, held an expert-level meeting on July 3 in Istanbul with the participation of representatives and experts from both sides.

The two sides had agreed to hold the expert-level talks during their negotiations in the Russian capital, Moscow, in June.

The Moscow meetings came after three sessions of plenary talks in Baghdad in May and an earlier round of negotiations in Istanbul in mid-April.

The two sides had, prior to the Istanbul talks, held two rounds of negotiations, one in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2010, and another in Istanbul in January 2011.