P5+1 to offer new Iran talks after Rohani takes office: Russia

Russia says the six major world powers of the P5+1 will offer a proposal to Iran for the resumption of talks mainly on Tehran’s nuclear energy program once Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani takes office.

The P5+1 group is to make the offer shortly after Iran’s president-elect is sworn in , Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by IRNA as saying on Friday.

Rohani won Iran’s June 14 presidential election with an outright victory, gaining 18,613,329 votes, or 50.7 percent of a total of 36,704,156 ballots.

The Iranian president-elect’s inauguration is to take place in August.

Lavrov also said that Iran was ready to discuss halting 20-percent uranium enrichment, adding that the Islamic Republic had announced its readiness to do so long before the country’s presidential election.

Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers – Russia, China, France, Britain, and the US plus Germany – have held several rounds of talks, mainly over the Iranian nuclear energy program.

The US, the Israeli regime and some of their allies falsely claim that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with Washington and the European Union using the unfounded claim as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on Iran.

Tehran strongly rejects the allegation over its nuclear energy activities, maintaining 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.

China and Russia, as two veto-wielding powers at the UN Security Council, have repeatedly expressed their support for Iran’s nuclear energy program, voicing opposition to the sanctions against Tehran.

On June 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear energy program, saying he had “no doubt that Iran is adhering to the rules” regarding its nuclear energy program and its international commitments.