Iran nuclear talks to continue in Istanbul in March

PanARMENIAN.Net - Talks between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear program ended on Wednesday, Feb 27, with an agreement to convene technical experts in Istanbul on March 18 and return to Almaty for full negotiations among the delegations on April 5 and 6, a senior Western diplomat said, according to The New York Times.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said that modest progress had been achieved. The participants “had come back with more realistic proposals that come a little closer to Iran’s position,” he said. “Their proposals seem more realistic and positive.” He added that there have been “some changes in their viewpoint.”

The two days of talks here had been convened to get a clear response from Tehran to an offer of step-by-step sanctions relief in return for confidence-building measures from Iran, Western diplomats said.

They cautioned that there was little substantive progress other than Iran’s willingness to study the proposals delivered here and added that the technical meeting in Istanbul is to explain the proposals in detail before returning to Almaty to hear Iran’s response.

Senior Western diplomats have said that this week’s meeting would be a low-level success if it produced a specific agreement to meet again soon so that there would be an element of momentum to the negotiations.

The talks have been intermittent since beginning in October 2009, with the last meeting eight months ago in Moscow.