GENEVA, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – Iranian nuclear negotiators will meet with US diplomats on the sidelines of a two-day talks in Geneva that begin on Tuesday, the IRNA news agency said citing an Iranian envoy.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi, who will head the Irainian delegation during the second round of talks, said the Iranian team of negotiators plans to meet with delegations of other states involved in international negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program.
He did not say whether those meetings will be held in bilateral or multilateral format.
Russia is among the six nations trying to find an international resolution to the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear program, with others being the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany and the United States. The Russian delegation to Geneva is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
Western powers suspect Iran of using its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons, a claim that Iran has consistently denied. Tehran insists it needs atomic technology for producing electricity, although it has some of the world’s largest reserves of oil and gas.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the country’s chief nuclear negotiator who will head the Iranian delegation in the first round, earlier vowed to prove to the international community that Tehran’s nuclear program was "nothing but peaceful."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in late September that his country would prepare a plan to break the deadlock in nuclear talks before its next meeting with the Iran Six group of mediators.
An Iranian diplomat close to the talks said Zarif met with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton late on Monday to discuss Tehran’s nuclear proposals.
“The sides discussed the new Iranian plan that would help to break the deadlock in the talks. The details will be made public later,” the source said.
Ashton’s spokesman Michael Mann said on Monday that the European Union expects Tuesday’s meeting to produce tangible results.
