EU considers Iranian response positive

The EU considers Iranian message about readiness to start negotiations positive, media reported citing EU officials. 

The European Union’s high representative for foreign policy Catherine Ashton said Wednesday that negotiation [with Iran] was the only possible solution to the problem of Iran’s nuclear program, and she expressed confidence that new talks with Iran could begin in the fall.

Ashton said she had received a “quite long” response from the chief Iranian negotiator, Iranian Supreme National Security Council’s secretary Saeed Jalili on Wednesday morning after her request for new talks on the nuclear issue. She added hadn’t yet analyzed it fully.

“She is currently studying [the letter] carefully with her service and will discuss it further with the EU 3+3 partners and respond in due course,” Tehran Times quoted a representative to Ashton as saying.

In mid-June Ashton wrote a letter to Jalili in which she asked Iran to resume negotiations with the P5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) shortly after the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions on the Islamic Republic on June 9.

Jalili reportedly sent an answer to Ashton saying that Tehran is ready to sit at the negotiating table.