Iran welcomes US initiative on direct talks

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 23 /Trend D.Khatinoglu/ Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said that Tehran welcomes the American top officials and 35 former officials' statements about a necessity of direct talks between two nations, IRNA reported. The U.S. President Barak Obama sent best wishes to the Iranian people as they celebrate Nowruz (New solar year which began on March 19). During a video message, the President speaks directly to the people and leaders of Iran about the opportunity to begin a new relationship between two countries. After that, some 35 prominent ex-diplomats, military officers and other officials from both political parties in the U.S. issued a report on April 18 urging President Obama to renew diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis and take advantage of economic sanctions that have hit Iran hard. "The United States should now dedicate as much energy and creativity to negotiating directly with Iran as it has to create a broad international coalition to pressure and isolate Iran," said the report. Salehi said that Iran welcomes these statements in case the U.S. is really truthful. Iranian foreign minister went on saying that after latest nuclear talks held in Almaty, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton who leads the talks promised to negotiate Iran's proposals with six major countries and get in touch with Iran's top negotiator Saeid Jalili, but has not done yet. Salehi called this action as the lacking "truthful" in West's position. The negotiations on the nuclear programme between Iran and the 'six' countries (U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) took place in Kazakhstan on April 5-6. Iran offered his proposals to the West during the talks. The previous round of negotiations took place in Kazakhstan on February 26-27. The six major powers offered a proposal package to Iran during Almaty-1 talks, but Iran refused to response and offered its own proposals in Almaty-2. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az