Khatibzadeh: Latest round of Iran-Saudi talks ‘positive, progressive’/Vienna talks to resume soon
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh says the fifth round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia was held on Thursday last week.
Speaking in his weekly press conference on Monday, Khatibzadeh expressed hope that the World Quds Day demonstrations, established by the late Imam Khomeini, would be held across the globe even greater than in the past.
Asked about the possibility of resumption of the talks in the Austrian capital, Khatibzadeh said that the issues related to Iran, the EU, Russia, and China have been solved and the outstanding issues between Iran and the US are moved forward by the coordinator.
The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian shared the view that the prolongation of the current recess in the talks was not in the interest of the negotiations and it was proper to refresh the talks by an in-person meeting, the spokesman noted, referring to the recent phone conversation between Borrell and Amirabdollahian.
The location and the level of the meeting have yet to be decided upon, Khatibzadeh continued, but it was on the agenda and what is important is that the conversations have not been halted since the recess began.
He also touched upon the rapprochement negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, saying that the fifth round of the talks was held last Thursday through the offices of Iraq and Oman.
The talks were moving forward within the previously provisioned frameworks, he noted, adding that if the talks were improved to the first political degree, the talks could witness a serious improvement.
On the tensions on the Iran-Afghanistan border in Dowqarun, Khatibzadeh said that Iran has informed to caretaking government in Afghanistan of Tehran’s concerns about the borders and the Afghan border guards’ inexperience in identifying border spots and unfamiliarity with professional behavior.
Asked about moving centrifuges from the Karaj site to a nuclear site in Natanz, he noted that the machines were moved after the sabotage act against the Iranian nuclear site and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed.
He said that Iran was a member of NPT and was allowed to do anything needed under the IAEA monitoring.
On the last night cyberattack that was foiled by Iran, he said that the lack of mandatory international rules in cyberspace was seriously felt and various countries, including Iran, have tried to develop some laws and rules into a universal agreement.
Iran is experiencing up to thousands of cyberattacks against governmental websites on a daily basis which is difficult to be tracked, according to the spokesman, adding that Iran follows up the case through a rapid action force.