Almaty talks on Iran will go forward: US

Washington: The US will go ahead with the Almaty talks with Iran along with its other international partners, despite the latest IAEA report that Tehran is introducing advance centrifuges. "Our expectation standing here today is that the Almaty talks will go forward. That is certainly our intention. Our team plans to travel this weekend, as we said," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters here yesterday.

"Unfortunately, it`s not a new phenomenon to have some moves like we saw at Natanz in advance of these rounds. We continue to believe that with seriousness, there is a diplomatic solution to be had here," she said. The State Department spokesperson added that the position of the United States on any bilateral talks with Iran has not changed. "We have said from the beginning of this in 2009 that we would be open, if the Iranians wanted to, in the context of being together for the P-5 plus one, to meet bilaterally with the Iranian side," she said. PTI