Azerbaijan, Baku, September 9 /Trend, N. Umid/
The EU foreign policy chief and chief negotiator for the P5+1(the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) Catherine Ashton's spokesman Michael Mann dismissed articles on offering new proposal to Iran to persuade Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, Radiofarda reported.
He went on to note that the Almaty proposal is already on the Table.
Iranian media outlets quoted Suadi Arabian Okaz newspaper as saying that the P5+1 has new offers for Iran on its nuclear issue.
"We are interested on starting the negotiations as soon as possible," Mann said, adding that "however, we can not say what will be the next step."
The p5+1's Almaty proposal offers halting some imposed sanctions against Iran during six months as long as Tehran agreed to decrease Fordow site's activity, suspend uranium enrichment to 20 percent.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ashton agreed to meet on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session in New York in late September to discuss a resumption of negotiations over Iran's nuclear issue.
Iran and the P5+1 group have held several rounds of talks on a range of issues, with the main focus being on Iran's nuclear issue. The two sides wrapped up their latest round of negotiations on April 6 in the Kazakh city ofAlmaty. An earlier round had been held in Almaty on February 26-27.
On Thursday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani officially assigned the country's Foreign Ministry to take charge of future nuclear talks with the P5+1 group.
In his Friday phone conversation with Ashton, the Iranian foreign minister reaffirmed Tehran's determination to resolve the Western dispute over its nuclear energy program "if Iran's rights are respected," and if the other side is also resolved to settle the issue.