'P5+1 willing to resume talks with Iran'

EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton has voiced the willingness of the P5+1 group to resume talks with Tehran to achieve a “comprehensive and negotiated” solution to Iran's nuclear issue.

In a letter to Tehran on Friday, Ashton said if Iran is ready to discuss concrete confidence-building measures without preconditions, the P5+1 - Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany - “would be willing to agree on a next meeting within the coming weeks at a mutually convenient venue," Reuters reported.

 

Ashton's letter came in response to an earlier one by Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili in September, in which he informed Ashton about Iran's readiness for talks with the P5+1.

"I welcome your suggestion to resume talks, in order to take fundamental steps for sustainable cooperation," Ashton said in her letter.

 

Ashton added that the goal of the talks "remains a comprehensive negotiated, long-term solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature" of Iran's nuclear program.

 

Iran and the P5+1 held two rounds of multifaceted talks in Geneva in December 2010 and in the Turkish city of Istanbul last January.

 

Tehran says it is ready to continue the talks based on common ground, adding however that it has no intention of backing down on its nuclear rights.

 

“We have already announced that we are ready for talks with respect to cooperation on common ground,” said Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast at his weekly press conference on September 13.