TEHRAN (FNA)- Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, announced that the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) have held an internal meeting on Wednesday morning to confer on the next steps in talks with Tehran on the country's nuclear issue.


According to Mann, the meeting was held at the level of political directors of the G5+1 headed by Ashton to discuss the "next steps" in the trend of negotiations with Iran.

He also said that the G5+1 members held some bilateral talks on the issue.

The meetings among the world powers postponed the Wednesday morning session of the talks with Iran which was due to start at 11:00 Geneva time to 13:00.

Negotiating teams from Iran and the G5+1 had two sessions of talks on Tuesday morning and afternoon which were held in a serious and positive atmosphere, according to both sides. They decided to continue their talks on Wednesday morning.

During the meetings, Iran presented a three-staged package of proposals to the opposite sides which includes confidence-building measures for a settlement of the Iran-West nuclear standoff.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi told reporters that the content of Iran's proposals is "confidential" and will not be released to the media for now.

Araqchi said the two sides have agreed to keep it secret until an agreement is made.

Yet, both Iran and the world powers have described the meetings today as "positive" and "constructive".

"Mr. Zarif (the Iranian foreign minister and head of Iran's negotiating team) had a PowerPoint presentation of the plan in details, the generalities of the plan were discussed in the morning session and the details will be studied by (the two sides') political directors in the afternoon," Araqchi said after the end of the morning session of the talks.

Araqchi, who is also the spokesman and the number two person in the Iranian team, told reporters that "the negotiations were held in a highly positive atmosphere and the two sides were serious when speaking of their issues".

He said that the world powers have welcomed the general points of Tehran's proposals on the settlement the country's nuclear standoff with the West, adding that Iran is seeking to encourage the opposite side to pursue a common goal for the negotiations.

"The Group 5+1 member states welcomed the generalities of Iran's plan," Araqchi told reporters before the start of the afternoon meeting.

And then after the second session on Tuesday, a diplomatic source present in the negotiations said the delegations of the six world powers have shown a positive and constructive reaction to the details of Tehran's proposals.

"The atmosphere dominating the meeting was positive and constructive and the negotiations will continue tomorrow morning," a diplomatic source close to the Iranian delegation told FNA after the end of the second session of the Tuesday talks between Tehran and the G5+1.

"Both sides (Iran and the six world powers) showed a serious attitude during the meeting and negotiations and several questions and answers were asked and answered face-to-face," the source added.

The diplomat said the two sides discussed "the details of Iran's three-staged proposal" and "the Iranian side elaborated on its plan".

By Fars News Agency

 

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