Atmosphere of Iran-P5+1 talks positive, different

An EU spokesman says the negotiations between Iran and six major world powers were “positive” and “totally different” from previous talks. “There is a positive atmosphere ... contrasting with the last time… totally different,” said Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton. The first round of the negotiations was held Saturday morning in Istanbul, followed by bilateral talks between Iran and the members of the P5+1 group of nuclear powers, excluding the United States. The second round of talks continued in the afternoon. The six members of the P5+1 group are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, viz. Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, plus Germany. Sources close to the Iranian delegation said Iran's negotiators rejected multiple requests by the US for bilateral talks following the first round of talks and again before the beginning of the second round. The Iranian delegation was headed by Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili while the delegations of the six world powers were led by Ashton. Tehran and the P5+1 had held two rounds of multifaceted talks in the past, one in Geneva in December 2010 and another in Istanbul in January 2011.