Iran says nuclear meeting with EU 'fruitful'

TEHRAN - A senior Iranian official has said that the meeting between the Iranian foreign minister and his European Union (EU) counterpart on Tuesday in Istanbul was "fruitful in advancing nuclear talks," the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

"The talks were very fruitful and it led to a better understanding pertaining to the advancement of nuclear talks," Abbas Araqchi, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, told IRNA, referring to the meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad- Javad Zarif and the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.

Araqchi's remarks were reported in an IRNA dispatch from Algiers, where an Iranian delegation was participating in the 17th Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Araqchi said the two-day Istanbul talks, which was concluded on Tuesday, focused mainly on the ways of conducting the next round of nuclear talks with the P5+1 group, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany.

Before the next round of talks, an expert-level nuclear meeting and another meeting between Ashton and Zarif are likely, he added.

The last round of Iranian nuclear talks ended in Vienna on May 16 without reaching any deal.

Western countries accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons and demand that Iran significantly scale back its nuclear program and subject it to more transparency.

Tehran says that it has the right to develop nuclear programs under the Non-Poliferation Treaty and that its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only.

The next round of talks is scheduled for June 16-20 in Vienna.