Ashton to visit Iran end of January

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton to visit Iran at the end of this month, Mehr news agency cited Iranian well-informed source as saying. IRNA news agency quoted the source as saying that ashton will proceed to the middle east this week and since her visit coincides with Iranian foreign Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's visit to each of Lebanon , Iraq and Jordan so she will not visit Iran this week. "Ashton has received an open invitation from Zarif to travel to Iran whenever she wants," Abbas Araqchi, the deputy negotiator in talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program, said without giving any dates for the proposed trip. Iran and world powers agreed Friday on how to implement a landmark deal on containing Tehran's nuclear program, but it must still be approved by each country before it can take effect. "The negotiations were carried out in the atmosphere of mutual understanding and we found solutions for all the three points of disagreement, but the capitals should decide whether they accept or reject the solutions," said Araqchi It is noted that two days of talks between high-level Iranian and EU negotiators ended in Geneva Friday with "very good progress on all the pertinent issues," said Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Ashton represents the so-called P5+1 group of world powers, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States , in the decade-long nuclear negotiations with Iran.