New round of Iran nuke talks to be held next week

The talks between Iran and six major world powers over its nuclear program will resume in Switzerland's Montreux on March 5, a press release from the EU delegation to Geneva said on Friday.

The talks, to be chaired by EU Political Director Helga Schmid, will be preceded by a series of bilateral meetings between Iran and the P5+1 group, namely the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, starting on Monday.

"The EU is making every effort to facilitate the negotiations:, we cannot miss the opportunity of a good agreement," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was cited as saying.

The last round of Iran nuke talks was held from February 21 to 23 in Geneva, which described by Chinese representative Wang Qun as "intensive, pragmatic and held in good atmosphere".

It has been over a year since Iran and the world major countries agreed to come back to the negotiating table for the Iranian nuclear program in 2013. Under an interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 inked in November, 2013, Iran said it would suspend critical nuclear activities in return for limited ease of sanctions, with all sides seeking a comprehensive deal.

After missing twice self-imposed deadlines, the negotiators agreed in November 2014 to extend the deadline for another seven months and aimed to reach a political framework deal by the end of March. Endit