The U.S. Department of State expressed hope on Tuesday that the meeting to take place in Istanbul in January regarding Iran’s nuclear program would be the start of a serious process.
Philip Crowley, the U.S. assistant secretary of state, told a daily press briefing that the United States hoped that the Istanbul meeting would be the start of a serious process for a discussion between Iran and representatives of the P-5+1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council including the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany).
Crowley said the United States had indicated a willingness to Turkey’s hosting the meeting, which would be a follow-on meeting of the meeting that took place in Geneva.
“As we signaled before this first meeting, we were open to have multiple meetings in multiple locations, and certainly the decision to meet next month in Istanbul is a reflection of that,” Crowley also said.
The first meeting between Iran and P5+1 took place in Geneva, Switzerland in October 2009.
AA