‘Iran rejects P5+1 offer for talks venue’

April 6th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Informed sources said Iran has so far turned down repeated calls from the Western side to hold fresh negotiations in Norway, Switzerland and Austria, Fars news agency reported Thursday.

According to the sources, the three European countries were proposed by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton as alternate venues.

Iran and the P5+1comprising Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany held two rounds of multifaceted talks in Geneva in December 2010 and in the Turkish city of Istanbul in January 2011.

The next round of comprehensive talks is set to take place on April 13-14, but the venue of the negotiations has not been decided yet.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last weekend that the talks will take place in Istanbul.

Iran has, however, proposed Iraq as the venue for the talks during a meeting between Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and a high-ranking Iranian delegation, headed by Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Baqeri and the SNSC Director General for Arab Affairs Reza Amiri in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the same day that Zebari welcomed the proposal.

“The (Iraqi) foreign minister welcomed the Iranian proposal and expressed Iraq’s readiness to host the meeting, asserting that he will conduct the necessary contacts with the relevant parties about the proposal,” the statement added.

Tehran says it is ready to continue talks based on common ground, adding, however, that it has no intention of backing down on its nuclear rights.

AR/AZ/GHN