Brussels, 16/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - At the end of a long dinner in Istanbul on Wednesday 15 May, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and the Iranian negotiator, Saïd Jalil, said about the Iranian nuclear programme that the discussions had been long and useful and that work would continue. The dinner followed on from the negotiations in Almaty (Kazakhstan) on 5-6 April (see EUROPE 10822) between Iran and the E3+3 (Germany, France, United Kingdom and China, United States, Russia) and from Ashton's consultations with the E3+3 members.
At the end of their meeting, Ashton said: “We will now reflect on how to go on to the next stage of the process. We will be in touch shortly”. Jalili said that they had decided to continue working and to maintain their talks, and he explained that they had had the opportunity to go into detail during the dinner. “We will soon hold talks again to set a date for the meeting”, he added.
Ashton said that the discussion enabled them to talk “about the proposals we had put forward”. However, “it was not a negotiating round” she reiterated. Before the dinner she had announced that it was “an opportunity to take time to consider further the good proposals we have put forward”. She hoped that Jalili would respond to the proposals put forward by the E3+3. Jalili had explained that Iran was still waiting for the E3+3 response to his own proposals.
The deputy secretary general for the European External Action Service, Helga Schmid, and Ali Bagheri, the deputy secretary for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, were also present at the dinner.
Presidential elections, for which Jalili is a candidate, will take place in mid-June and could delay the continuation of discussions. (CG/transl.fl)