Iran's FM optimistic about upcoming talks between Tehran, G5+1

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he is hopeful about the results of the next round of the talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 5-6."The first round of talks in Almaty produced positive results. We hope the next round of negotiations in Almaty will continue the same forward trend," Salehi said after meeting his Kazakh counterpart Yerlan Idrisov in Dushanbe on Friday.The last round of the talks between Tehran and the six world powers was held in Almaty on February 26-27.Also, experts from Iran and the G5+1 reviewed the two sides' proposals in a meeting in Istanbul from March 17 to 18.The two sides' experts outlined topics of the upcoming talks between the chief negotiators of Iran and the G5+1 due to be held in Almaty early next month.Earlier this month, diplomatic sources in Europe said that the grounds are now ready to lift part of the current economic sanctions on Iran in the next round of talks between Tehran and the six world powers.According to a report by Norway's Radio Austin, diplomatic circles in Europe have announced that the next meeting between Iran and G5+1 will witness a real change in the Iran-West nuclear standoff and at the end of the day "the Europeans will announce a partial removal of economic sanctions against Iran".The report said that Europeans have realized that softening Iran's economic sanctions is a must since they have failed to prevent Iran from installing thousands of new generation centrifuges and the economic sanctions have left no impact on the activities of Iranian scientists.The report came after Iran voiced optimism about the removal of the West's unjust sanctions in the new Iranian year (started March 21).The announcement was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in a joint press conference with his Benin counterpart Nassirou Arifari Bako in Tehran.Based on the latest information, the next Iranian year will be promising for lifting the sanctions, the Iranian minister said before starting the new year.He said that the time is ripe to resolve the nuclear dispute with the western governments