Tehran - Talks between Iran's main nuclear negotiator and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana later this month will be a prologue to a main meeting with the foreign ministers of the five UN Security Council member states plus Germany (5+1), a senior Iranian parliament deputy said Sunday. "Talks with Solana will just be the prologue for meeting with the 5+1 (foreign ministers), and Solana as representing the 5+1 should therefore arrange the next steps," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the parliament's foreign policy and security commission, told the official news agency IRNA.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili is scheduled to meet Solana in mid-July. The venue is not yet clear.
The Iranian ambassador to Brussels on Friday presented Solana the reply by Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to the latest 5+1 incentive package aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment or otherwise face further sanctions.
No details have yet been disclosed about the reply - but it seems that Iran has not directly referred to the enrichment suspension demand, suggesting instead to seek common points as a basis for settling the dispute within negotiations.
Government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said Saturday that talks with the 5+1 would only be held on the basis of respecting Iran's rights, adding that the Iranian position had not changed.
Despite three UN Security Council resolutions, including financial sanctions, Iran has so far rejected the world powers' demand to suspend enrichment, and demands negotiations without preconditions.
The 5+1 states, however, have so far insisted that talks with Iran can only be held if the Islamic state suspends, at least temporarily, the enrichment process.
