ALMATY, April 6 (Itar-Tass) - Iran and the Sextet failed to reach mutual understanding on issues, which had been discussed at the Almaty round of talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
After the Iran-Sextet negotiations on Saturday, Ryabkov said, “The parties are ready to maintain contacts and hold a new round of talks.”
The deputy foreign minister said the second day of the talks “was the day of questions and answers. The delegations exchanged the assessments, specified and clarified the acceptable approaches”.
“Maybe, the second day was most tense and intensive during the whole period of talks within the latest two or three years,” the top-ranking diplomat said. “We failed to reach mutual understanding. Every side should do much,” he stressed.
“We agreed that after the results were reported to the countries’ leadership the Sextet, i.e. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, will contact the Iranian partners in order to continue the process,” Ryabkov said.
He expressed hope, “The date and place of the full-fledged round will be determined soon. The parties are ready to start contacts and hold a new round of talks.”
In his view, “certain limiters, which any party has, have worked. Thus, the necessity arises to give a report to the leadership of the countries. The Sextet believes that the Almaty package is a comprehensive and rather balanced set of mutual steps. I don’t conceal that the document’s concept is worked out due to Russia’s efforts.”
“We worked hard to improve the Baghdad package. We realise that the further the talks go and the closer the key issues are, the more difficult decisions are taken. That is why we don’t seek to dramatise the lack of a compromise,” the deputy foreign minister said.