Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

European Union foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton scheduled to visit Iran in the coming weeks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has invited Ashton to visit Tehran.

Speaking with Trend Agency, Ashton's spokesman Michael Mann confirmed that Ashton plans to visit Tehran, but did not specify the exact date.

"I read with interest the invitation to visit Tehran and it is my intention to do so in the course of the next weeks," Ashton said at a press conference after talks with Kuwait's Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah on January 13.

Reuters reported citing a diplomatic source that the P5+1 group and Iran are "very likely" to resume nuclear negotiations in February, shortly after an interim, six-month deal restricting its atomic work goes into effect.

The goal of the new round talks is to find a broad settlement in the decade-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program. The aim is to defuse the risk of mistrust leading to deeper tensions or even conflict in the Middle East.

Iran and six world powers - Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany - reached an agreement over the unresolved issues regarding the implementation of the Geneva deal on January 12.

The U.S. president Barack Obama confirmed that the agreement reached with Iran in Geneva in November would be implemented starting January 20.

Under the agreement, six major powers agreed to give Iran access to $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if it carries out the deal, which offers sanctions relief in exchange for steps to curb the Iranian nuclear program.

The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. Iran has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.