Sextet must enter nuclear talks with realism: Zarif

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has advised the six world powers to enter talks with Tehran over its nuclear energy program “with seriousness and realism.”

Speaking to reporters in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday, the Iranian minister expressed hope that the six countries would avoid illusions which might be imposed on them by some pressure groups or certain individuals outside the negotiations.

He emphasized that it is “completely possible” that the nuclear talks will reach a result and that Tehran is pursuing the negotiations with “seriousness, accuracy and without any rush.”

“Our base [of work] is protecting the Iranian people’s rights and the country’s dignity and pride, and removal of brutal obstacles in the way of the country’s progress,” Zarif pointed out.

He said the next round of official talks between Tehran and the six countries would be held on June 16, adding that the Iranian negotiating team is serious in following up the negotiations.

The Iranian minister made the comments at the end of two days of unofficial talks with EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Turkish city of Istanbul on Monday and Tuesday.

A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said earlier on Tuesday that Zarif and Ashton held “long but useful” talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

During their closed-door talks in Istanbul, the two officials reviewed the progress of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six countries.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Russia, China, France, Britain and the US — plus Germany have been discussing ways to iron out differences and start drafting a final deal that would resolve the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

The two sides wrapped up the latest round of nuclear talks in Vienna on May 16.