Iran Foreign Minister cancels dinner with Ashton ahead of nuclear talks

Iran’s Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif cancelled a scheduled dinner meeting with the EU’s Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton yesterday in protest of a meeting she held with opposition activists during her first visit to Tehran earlier this month; Iran’s news agency IRNA reported.

IRNA said that Zarif cancelled the planned dinner in Vienna; ahead of a new round of talks between Iran and P5+1 talks to protest Ashton’s uncoordinated meetings in Tehran with female activists who were convicted of inciting riots after the controversial 2009 elections.

Ashton chairs the P5+1 world power delegation which include the UK, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany in the negotiations with Iran.

The two sides aim to conduct substantive negotiations on a final nuclear deal under which Tehran would accept additional long-term restrictions on its nuclear programmes to reassure the West of its inability to develop a nuclear weapon. In return, the six nations promise to permanently lift the UN sanctions imposed on Iran.