Brussels, 26/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 24 October, the deputy secretary general of the European External Action Service, Helga Schmid, had a telephone conversation with the deputy secretary general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Bagheri, to inform him of the outcome of the of the E3+3 foreign affairs ministers' meeting (Germany, France, United Kingdom, China, United States and Russia) in New York on 27 September on the Iranian nuclear programme, a spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton announced on Thursday 25 October.
He said that it had been agreed that this call will be followed by a telephone conversation between Ashton and the chief negotiator, Said Jalili, “in order to discuss the next steps” of the negotiations, but he did not give any details on a date. “This was also discussed” by the E3+3 in New York, he said.
During his conversation with Schmid, Bagheri was informed that the E3+3 foreign affairs ministers “had stressed their determination to work for a diplomatic solution and the need for Iran to engage urgently in a confidence building process aimed at resolving international concerns about the nature of its nuclear programme”, the spokesman said.
Parliament delegation to Iran.
Elsewhere, as announced earlier in EUROPE 10717, a delegation of five MEPs - Tarja Cronberg (Greens/EFA, Finland), Cornelia Ernst (GUE, Germany), Joseph Weidenholzer (S&D, Austria), Isabelle Durant (Greens/EFA, Belgium) and Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar (S&D, Spain) - will visit Tehran on 27 October-2 November for the fourth regular meeting of the European Parliament meeting with the Iranian Parliament. Replying in the plenary session to the criticism of Martin Callanan (ECR, United Kingdom) about this visit, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that the delegation is taking the letters of congratulations to Sakharov Prize winners, Nasrin Soutoudeh and Jafar Panahi (see other article), and that if the regime prevents the delegation from meeting them, the MEPs will stop their “mission immediately”. (CG/transl.fl)