DHAKA: The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday she hopes a new round of negotiations with Iran on a definitive settlement to a decade-old nuclear standoff could start within a few weeks.

‘Depending on how things work out today, I hope that we will start talks within the next few weeks,’ she told reporters as she arrived for an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

The UN nuclear watchdog is expected to give a green light on Monday to the full implementation of an interim deal with Iran, struck in November, reports The Jerusalem Post.

BDST: 1642 HRS, JAN 20, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor