Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who is Brussels to confer with the EU on expanding cooperation, attended a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday in which he assessed the prospect for talks between Iran and the European Union as positive.
Expressing his satisfaction with the continuation of successful talks between Iran and the EU as led by Mogherini and her special role in guiding the 3+3 during the nuclear negotiations, Zarif added “we arrived at the implementation day much sooner than predicted. Now it is time for the Western side to take steps toward the implementation. European countries keenly follow up on the execution of the JCPOA and good relations that were resulted from it have already been established.”
High-level, political talks that were commenced in the past few weeks with the presence of Mogherini in Tehran will be resumed with her upcoming visit to Tehran in spring, he added.
Zarif maintained that the parties are moving along the right path in regard to the removal of sanctions, saying “there are certain psychological elements that should be taken care of. I believe that European countries should give more guarantees and encouragement to their financial institutes.”
Noting that Iran would confer with the EU on reaching a political solution to Yemeni and Syrian crises, Zarif added “we believe there has to be general recognition by all parties that there is no military solution [in Syria]."
He went on to add that some players still continue to believe that there is a military solution to Syrian situation, saying “I think they have to abandon that illusion in order to achieve a cease-fire and cessation of hostilities.”
But Zarif warned the agreed cease-fire should not be used by world powers to mobilize their allies; “we agreed in Munich that fight against terrorism especially against ISIL and al-Nusra will not stop to allow the allies of certain regions to regroup and that is extremely important.”
He also added that Iran and the EU could have good cooperation on the issue of Afghanistan and immigration.
Mogherini, for her part, deemed Zarif’s first official visit to the EU as one of the successful results of the negotiations on the nuclear agreement and the implementation day.
She stressed that work on the implementation will continue and that bilateral talks at this stage will first focus on Iran-EU relations.
“Spring, I would say, is a reasonable time to visit Teheran together with other Vice-Presidents of the [European] Commission and Commissioners to explore all different sectors of cooperation between the European Union and Iran,” she said.
She also maintained that the International Syria Support Group would be one of the main points of their discussion; “the concrete steps that need to be taken to de-escalate the conflict, come to the cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access inside Syria as we agreed all together in Munich just a few days ago and the overall regional architecture as we just discussed the other day in Munich at the Security Conference,” she added.
She further asserted that Iran and the EU will also cooperate on the issue of Afghanistan as the two sides have a common interest in bringing about stability and security.
On a question regarding the steps the EU would take to end the war waged by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, Mogherini said “while Yemen is not close to us, it is part of our political interests. We feel that the EU has a responsibility to help with the resolution of conflict in Yemen, although the key role is to be played by the UN.”
“As Mr. Zarif said a few days ago, cooperation can settle many current tensions in the region,” she said.
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