Iran delegation arrives for P5+1 talks

Iran's delegation to a conference with the P5+1 group (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) arrived in Turkey as tensions mount over the country's nuclear programme. The four-member Iranian negotiating team, headed by the secretary of the supreme national security council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili, reached Istanbul Friday morning. The Iranian delegation was welcomed by local Turkish officials as well as Iran's ambassador to Ankara, Bahman Hosseinpour. The Iran-P5+1 talks will be held at Istanbul's Lutfil Kirdar Hall on Saturday. After a year of stalled talks, Iran and the P5+1 group eventually agreed to resume negotiations on April 14 and in case of good progress hold a second round of talks in Iraq's capital city, Baghdad. The last meeting between the two sides took place in Istanbul in January 2011. Iran and the P5+1 had also held two rounds of talks in Geneva in December 2010. The delegations of the six world powers are headed by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.