EU's top diplomat, Iranian foreign minister seek to restart nuclear talks

The EU’s top diplomat and Iran’s foreign minister have agreed to meet to try to restart stalled negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. This came as a court ruled some sanctions against Iran should be lifted.


The European Union's foreign policy coordinator, Catherine Ashton said on Friday that she planned to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (pictured above) on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York later this month.

"We are ready to come very quickly to talks," Ashton told reporters in Vilnius, where she was to attend in informal meeting of EU foreign ministers. "We really want to move now quickly to resolve this," she added, referring to the dispute between Tehran and the international community over its controversial nuclear program.

Ashton was speaking following a telephone conversation with Zarif, who had been named as Iran's new top nuclear negotiator on Thursday.
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In a separate development, a European court on Friday handed down a ruling seen as a setback to the EU's efforts to pressure Iran to come clean on its nuclear program.

The Luxembourg-based General Court ruled that asset freezes imposed on seven Iranian companies and one individual should be lifted. The court said the EU had failed to "properly establish" that the companies and individual affected had supported Tehran's nuclear program.

http://www.dw.de/eus-top-diplomat-iranian-foreign-minister-seek-to-restart-nuclear-talks/a-17071525