Iran Can Hold Separate Talks With P5+1 Member States: Velayati

Tehran, Dec 30, IRNA – Head of the Strategic Research Center of Irans Expediency Council, Ali-Akbar Velayati said on Sunday Iran could hold separate talks with six world countries negotiating with Tehran over its nuclear program. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with an Egyptian media delegation in Tehran, when asked by IRNA reporter about his recent remarks on the possibility of holding separate talks between Iran and the P5+1 member states, Velayati said that such separate meetings could take place to help negotiations within the frameworks of P5+1 yield good results. Velayati, a former foreign minister, said on Friday that holding separate talks with the five permanent members of UN Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany could help defuse a stand-off over Iran's nuclear program. When an Egyptian reporter asked him about direct talks between Iran and the US during recent nuclear negotiations in Geneva, Velayati said the talks between the two countries centered on the nuclear issue. It is not the first time that Iran and the US enter into bilateral talks over international issues, he said. Iran and the United States have talked about Afghanistan and Iraq in the past./end