Talks between Iran, P5+1 to begin in Kazakhstan

Next round of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany is set to begin in Kazakhstan later today.

The fresh round of talks will begin in southeastern Kazakh city of Almaty on Tuesday with the presence of representatives from Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany).

Secretary of Iran Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili is heading the Islamic Republic’s negotiating delegation. The P5+1 representatives are led by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

In a meeting with Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Almaty on Monday, Jalili said, “The international community expects the P5+1 group’s constructive, logical and reliable answers to Iran’s comprehensive proposals [presented] during the Moscow meeting.”

He added that powers should know that by relying on nuclear weapons and exerting various pressures on the Iranian nation, they would not be able to dissuade the Islamic Republic from achieving its nuclear rights.

Iran and the P5+1 group have held several rounds of talks with the main focus on Iran’s nuclear energy program. The last round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group was held in Moscow in June 2012.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Over the false allegation, Washington and the European Union have imposed several rounds of illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iran refutes the allegation and argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.