'Failed' senior level nuke talks between Iran and world powers 'downgraded'
High-level talks in Russia between Iran and the six world powers have been suspended, after both sides failed to bridge differences over the future of Tehran's nuclear programme.
Contacts will now be downgraded to the level of experts from each country and bureaucrats from Brussels and Tehran.
Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said there were 'significant gaps between the substance of the two positions'.
"We set out our respective positions in what were detailed, tough and frank exchanges," The Guardian quoted Ashton, as saying.
"The choice is Iran's. We expect Iran to decide whether it is willing to make diplomacy work, to focus on reaching agreement on concrete confidence-building steps, and to address the concerns of the international community," she added.
According to the paper, as per the new plan, technical experts from both sides will meet in Istanbul on 3 July, to 'increase the understanding' of the Iranian positions.
After that there would be contacts between deputy negotiators from Iran and Ashton's office, and then between Ashton and the chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, to decide whether it was worth resuming talks between Tehran and the six negotiating powers, the UK, US, France, Germany, China and Russia.
According to the paper, officials from all sides insisted that downgrading the talks did not amount to a total breakdown of diplomacy, well aware that such a declaration could bring closer an Israeli military attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
The decision to hold another technical meeting, made at the eleventh hour of the Moscow talks, was said by some to be a face-saving device to avoid pronouncing the talks dead on the Russian government's watch.
Source: Germany News.net
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