Next Iran-P5+1 talks due in May:Ashton
Iran and the six major world powers of P5+1 have agreed to hold their next round of talks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in May, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says.
She told a news conference that Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany held "constructive and useful" talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Saturday, adding that the next meeting in Iraq on May 23 must "take us forward in a very concrete way."
"We have agreed that the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) forms a key basis for what must be serious engagement to ensure all the obligations under the treaty are met by Iran while fully respecting Iran's right for the peaceful use of nuclear energy," Ashton said following the meeting with Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili.
"We expect subsequent meetings will lead to concrete steps towards a comprehensive negotiated solution" to the Western dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program, she noted.
The latest round of comprehensive talks wrapped up in Istanbul on Saturday after a 15-month hiatus. The Iranian delegation at the talks was headed by Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Jalili while the delegations of the six global nuclear powers were headed by Ashton.
This is the second time that Istanbul hosts the comprehensive talks between Iran and the P5+1.
Tehran and the P5+1 had held two rounds of talks in the past, one in Geneva in December 2010 and another in Istanbul in January 2011.