Iran's nuclear programme only topic in talks with world powers

A senior Iranian legislator stressed that the negotiations between Iran and the six major world powers are merely focused on the country's nuclear program, cautioning that inclusion of unrelated issues in the talks would be a clear violation of the Geneva deal and make it null and void. “In negotiations with the Group5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), only the nuclear issue is discussed. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s policies do not allow the Iranian negotiating team to address any matter other than the nuclear case,” Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said in Tehran on Sunday. He added, “No permission has ever been issued concerning talks over missiles, and the talks are merely limited to nuclear subjects.” On Friday, Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi underlined that the Vienna nuclear talks were diplomatically managed very well by both sides who focused on the main core of the Geneva deal which was struck late in November. “It seems that both parties are satisfied…. though negotiations are very hard and they need many more expert level talks, so that we can get into the issues in more details and define a framework for the negotiations,” Kamalvandi stated. Kamalvandi also added that Tehran attained certain key objectives by using multi-layered diplomacy in the latest round of talks between Iran and the six world powers. The Iranian official said that Iran was aware of the tactics of the six countries during the course of the talks, which included intense media spin. He said that the Iranian team was able to counter those tactics through focusing on some key, legal, technical and political issues. Commenting on Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kamalvandi said Tehran’s prime objective is to engage more directly with the UN nuclear agency. He said that this would help reduce the political pressure imposed on the IAEA by the Sextet of world powers during the course of the talks. The official also emphasized that both sides now need to prepare for intense discussions over the technicalities of the Iranian nuclear energy program. On Thursday, Iran and six world powers agreed on an agenda for negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program and will meet again next month in Vienna, a senior Iranian official said after two days of talks in the Austrian capital. This indicates an early step forward in the elusive search for a settlement of the decade-old dispute, even though the sides remain far apart on how to resolve it and both Iran and the United States have publicly stated it may not be possible to reach a final agreement. Negotiators from Iran and the Sextet of the world powers met in Vienna on February 18-20 to hammer out an agenda for talks on a final deal to the standoff over Tehran's nuclear activities. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, "The involved parties have agreed on an agenda and a framework and the next round of talks will be in the second half of March in Vienna." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who headed the Iranian delegation, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who presided over the delegations of the six world powers, ended their last round of talks on Thursday. The negotiations will probably extend at least over several months, and could help defuse years of hostility between energy-exporting Iran and the West, ease the danger of a new war in the Middle-East, transform the regional power balance and open up major business opportunities for western firms.