Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said he is "optimistic" about the future of Tehran's talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, Press TV reported.

In an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF on Thursday, Salehi said, "We are heading for goals that will be satisfactory for both sides. I am very optimistic and hopeful."

The Iranian minister made the remarks in reference to the latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany).

Iran and the P5+1 wrapped up their latest round of negotiations in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.

The sides agreed to convene in Almaty again on April 5-6 for the next round of negotiations after holding "expert-level" talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on March 17-18.

"I call it a milestone. It is a turning point in the negotiations," Salehi said during his visit to the Austrian capital, Vienna, to attend the 5th United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Global Forum.

In a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the UN conference on Wednesday, Salehi said, "We are ready to take measures to remove the nuclear concerns over our country via mutually agreed international means (between Iran and the West); however, the recognition of our nuclear rights by the opposite side will be paramount."

Meanwhile, the undersecretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Bagheri, hailed the result of the last round of talks between Tehran and the group of six major world powers as positive.

He said that at the nuclear talks in Kazakhstan with the P5+1 group, the group for the first time stepped away from general proposals.

"This was the difference from the previous talks," Bagheri said. "They have shown close views to those expressed during the talks in Moscow, and now our positions are somewhat closer than they were before."

Baqheri said the details of the proposal should be further discussed at the Istanbul expert-level meeting.

Iran and the P5+1 have held several rounds of comprehensive talks mainly over Iran's nuclear energy program. The last round of negotiations was held in Moscow in June 2012. The Baghdad talks took place on May 23-24, 2012.

The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran has consistently denied. Tehran has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead, and argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and as a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Iran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down the West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.