Jalili meets Ashton ahead of second reound of talks

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held a meeting on Wednesday ahead of the second round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The first round of talks kicked off on Tuesday morning in the former Kazakh capital Almaty and concluded after three hours. There is no news about outcome of step-by-step strategy inching toward a breakthrough. Details of talks have not been revealed. Iran and Group 5+1 said beforehand that they would focus on exchange of packages and counter-proposals to make headway to progress. Jalili and Ashton are co-chairing the delegations respectively. As it is expected, head of the Iranian delegation, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili will respond to the “updated and balanced” proposals of “Group of six ” (Russia, USA, China, Britain, France and Germany) on the Iranian nuclear program. In 2012, representatives of P5+1 group and Iran held three rounds of talks in Istanbul (April 14), Baghdad (May 23-24) and Moscow (June18-19). None of these meetings resulted in breakthroughs on disputed nuclear issues. Previously talks between the “Six Powers” and Iran were not conducted for over a year.