Participants of Iranian nuclear program talks to come back to Almaty

The 5+1 international negotiators and Iran are planning to hold negotiations on the expert level in Istanbul and then continue discussion of the Islamic nuclear program in Almaty, RIA Novosti reports. According to the agency, the results of the discussions held in Kazakhstan on February 26-27 will be published in the nearest time. The 5+1 international mediators (Russia, the U.S., China, Great Britain, France and Germany) made Iran new offers on the country’s nuclear program. Tehran did not unveil the essence of its offers to the mediators. U.S. Secretary of Secretary John Kerry thanked Kazakhstan for agreeing to host this year's fourth round of the negotiations on the nuclear program of Iran. Kerry emphasized that "thanks to its voluntary renouncement of nuclear weapons and unfailing adherence to strengthening of the global nonproliferation regime, Kazakhstan is an ideal place to hold these talks in." Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrissov expressed hope that the sides will be able to find constructive solutions for the good of the region and the whole world. According to AFP, both sides agreed to hold an expert-level meeting in Istanbul on March 17-18 and to come together again in Almaty on April 5-6. The 5+1 and IAEA are trying to convince Iran to halt enrichment of uranium that has been posing a potential threat to nuclear non-proliferation since 2003. Their negotiations stopped in 2009, when the IAEA Managing Council condemned Iran for unsanctioned construction of the second uranium enrichment plant.