EU appreciates Iran's new tone
Van Rompuy says concrete steps also needed
EU appreciates Iran's new tone
26/09/2013 - 8:45pm
EU President Herman Van Ropuy met with Iran's new head, Hassan Rouhani and said that the bloc appreciates the new tone but also needs concrete steps.
"It was the first time that we met the new President of Iran," Van Rompuy said in a statement. "We told him that we appreciated the new tone, the new language used by him and members of his Government. But in order to rebuild trust -and trust was lacking in the last years in the relations between Iran and the rest of the world - we also need concrete steps, deeds."
The EU Council President said that the new Iranian President raised expectations and confirmed that the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China officials will hold talks with Iran's Foreign Minister under the the leadership of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton.
"This will be the first meeting and the first step in this long process of rebuilding trust. There is a momentum on different avenues, not only on the nuclear issue with Iran; there can also be a momentum on Syria. If we find common ground for a resolution on the destruction of chemical weapons, this can lead us to opening of the Geneva II talks for solving in a political way the Syrian crisis, and there are also some perspectives for a renewal of the direct talks between Israel and Palestine," Van Rompuy said.
Both the US and Iran, under President Hassan Rouhani, who is considered a moderate and took over this summer, has given conciliatory signals during the UN General Assembly meeting held this week in New York.
Even though efforts for a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Rouhani did not come to fruition - the US says Iran could not eventually agree to it- the two sides are holding high level talks in a increasingly improving climate for the first time in many year. VOA
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