Iranian foreign ministry comes in charge of nuclear talks with 6 world powers

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani shifted the leading role in nuclear talks with the world powers from the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to the country’s foreign ministry. The information center of the Iranian government said president Rouhani in a decree on Thursday has entrusted the responsibility for negotiations with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) to the foreign ministry. In later remarks to FNA on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham confirmed the report, but said the SNSC will continue coordinating the talks, although the foreign ministry will have the lead. Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran would announce the names of its negotiators for the upcoming talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the coming days. “The members of the negotiating team have been specified and their names will be announced by the president’s office,” Zarif told reporters on Wednesday. Last week, Zarif urged the G5+1 to show political will when negotiating with Iran in future. "They should create a political will on their side and decide to resolve this issue," Zarif said last Tuesday night. "We hope that we will see this change in the behavior of the G5+1 and the two or three countries which more than others pursue the policy of pressure against Iran, that they want to settle the problem through negotiations," he added. Zarif underlined that settlement of Iran's nuclear issue means that the Iranian nation's right to use the civilian nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment, will be recognized and the international community's concerns will be obviated. Iran and the Group 5+1 have held several rounds of talks on a range of issues, with the main focus being on Iran’s nuclear energy program. The two sides wrapped up their latest round of negotiations on April 6 in the Kazakh city of Almaty. An earlier meeting had been held in the city on February 26-27. Meantime, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Monday that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will resume their talks in Vienna, Austria in late September. “Iran and the IAEA have agreed to hold their new round of talks in Vienna on September 27,” Salehi said. The AEOI chief expressed hope that the upcoming talks would bear tangible results. Iran and the IAEA last met in Vienna on May 15. The meeting, which was the 10th of its kind, was presided by former Iranian envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog agency Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh and IAEA deputy Director-General Herman Nackaerts. Iran appointed Reza Najafi as its new envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday. Soltaniyeh served as Iran's permanent representative at the UN nuclear watchdog for nearly a decade. Soltaniyeh’s mission came to an end on September 1. Najafi, a career diplomat, has served as deputy director-general of the foreign ministry’s political and international bureau and head of the ministry’s disarmament office. The US, Israel and some of their allies claim that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with Washington and the European Union using the unfounded allegation as a pretext to impose sanctions on Iran. Tehran strongly rejects the groundless claim over its nuclear activities, maintaining that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.