Iran: Success of Moscow Talks Depends on Powers' Attitude
(FNA)- Iran reiterated Tuesday that the upcoming talks with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in Moscow later this month would yield success if only the world powers show a positive and constructive approach.
Speaking to reporters in his weekly press conference here in Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said that Iran is "very serious and prepared" to hold talks with the six world powers.
As regards the possible outcome of the talks, Mehman-Parast said, "Grounds for the success of this meeting depend on the manner of cooperation and positive and constructive approach of the Group 5+1."
"The more seriously they will be ready to enter the talks and recognize our inalienable rights, the more the grounds will be for the success of the talks," the spokesman underscored.
On April 14 and after a 15-month hiatus, Iran and the six world powers resumed talks in Istanbul, Turkey, and agreed to meet again in the Iraqi capital on May 23.
Iran and the six world powers are due to continue their negotiations in the Russian capital, Moscow, on June 18 and 19.
In the final round of talks in Baghdad it was said that the next round of talks in Moscow would be successful only if the experts could prepare an agenda for both sides' proposals.
The two sides agreed to hold experts meetings ahead of the Moscow talks, but the world powers now shrug off implementing the agreement.
Iran's deputy chief negotiator wrote two letters to the deputy of EU foreign policy chief, Helga Schmid, to remind her of the Baghdad agreement for holding experts meeting between the Moscow talks, but the European side turned down both requests.
Then in a third letter to Schmid, Iran's deputy chief negotiator Ali Baqeri had also hit out at a lack of willingness by the six world powers to engage in preparatory talks, and warned that this month's talks in Moscow over Iran's nuclear program could stall because of faulty preparation.
He said that Iran had provided proposals for the framework of talks as well as issues to be discussed between the two sides.
"The next round of talks in Moscow will be successful provided that deputies and experts are able to prepare a specific agenda on the basis of Iran's proposals and those of 5+1," Baqeri's letter said.
The letter came in response to a message that Schmid had sent Baqeri on Thursday, in which she said that Iran should start detailed talks with world powers to address its production of high-grade uranium.
Schmid said an offer by the six powers negotiating with Iran to resolve a standoff over its nuclear work, put forth at a round of talks in Baghdad last month, was still on the table.
"It remains the collective conviction of the (six powers) that this proposal continues to represent the most promising basis for moving our discussions towards achieving concrete results at an early stage," she wrote in a letter to Baqeri.