DHAKA: Kazakhstan foreign minister Yerlan Idrisov said he does not rule out the possibility that the final round of the negotiations between Iran and the international Sextet (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) on the Iranian nuclear programme will be held in Kazakhstan again.

‘We are not going to say when the next round (of the negotiations) will take place. However, I’ll tell you a secret: the Iranian leaders have hinted that the third and final round may be held in Kazakhstan. However, it’s a big secret,’ Idrisov said while delivering a lecture on Kazakhstan’s foreign policy in the Kazakh Presidential Public Administration Academy in Astana on Wednesday, reports The Voice of Russia.

Idrisov said that ‘the two rounds held in Almaty were very successful’.

‘Our policy is that … we are not fixated on the negotiation venue, but we offer opportunities for both parties to create the best conditions … There was some competition, the Turks wanted it, the Iranians wanted it, and the Egyptians wanted it, and others wanted to host those rounds,’ he said.

‘We said: here are our policies, here are our views. And they all agreed that we should host it … I have met with all of the participants, with Iranian and European officials. I reconfirmed our position on the normalization of relations on the Iranian nuclear program,’ Idrisov said.

Idrisov also reiterated that ‘the first indications of the past meeting (between Iran and the Sextet) and the background of tomorrow’s meeting indicate that everything is going well’.

‘However, it’s hard to predict, and I would refrain from being too optimistic because there are a number of regional players who oppose the normalization of relations, and that is the biggest obstacle in this case,’ Idrisov said.

 The next round of the negotiations between Iran and the Sextet is scheduled to take place in Geneva on November 7-8.

BDST: 1800 HRS, NOV 06, 2013
RoR/SRS