Iran, World Powers’ Experts to Meet in Istanbul Sunday to Set Agenda for Fresh Talks

Expert delegations from Iran and the Group 5+1 are due to meet in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday to discuss the agenda for the next round of talks between the two sides.

The two sides’ experts are slated to outline topics of the upcoming talks between the chief negotiators of Iran and the G5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) due to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in April.

The two sides will likely issue a statement at the end of their two day talks in Istanbul on Monday.

Iran has called on the US and other western states to use the upcoming talks in Kazakhstan as an opportunity to build Tehran’s confidence and prove their honesty.

The last round of the talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 ended in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 27.

During the talks Iran and the world powers agreed to hold an experts meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 17-18 and then continue their talks at the level of their top negotiators in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 5-6.

Before the Almaty talks, Iran and the G5+1 had held three rounds of negotiations in Geneva, two rounds in Istanbul, one round in Baghdad and one round in Moscow in June.

Last week, diplomatic sources in Europe said that the grounds are now ready to lift part of the current economic sanctions on Iran in the next round of talks between Tehran and the six world powers.

According to a report by Norway’s Radio Austin, diplomatic circles in Europe have announced that the next meeting between Iran and G5+1 will witness a real change in the Iran-West nuclear standoff and at the end of the day “the Europeans will announce a partial removal of economic sanctions against Iran”.

The report said that Europeans have realized that softening Iran’s economic sanctions is a must since they have failed to prevent Iran from installing thousands of new generation centrifuges and the economic sanctions have left no impact on the activities of Iranian scientists.

The report came after Iran voiced optimism about the removal of the West’s unjust sanctions in the new Iranian year (to start March 21).

The announced was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in a joint press conference with his Benin counterpart Nassirou Arifari Bako in Tehran.

Based on the latest information, the next Iranian year will be promising for lifting the sanctions, the Iranian minister said.

He said that the time is ripe to resolve the nuclear dispute with the western governments.