Baku, Azerbaijan, March 7
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton will visit Tehran on March 8 to talk with Iranian officials, Iran's Fars news agency reported on March 7.
Ahton`s visit to Iran comes at the invitation of Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and will be her first visit of Iran.
Zarif invited the EU foreign policy chief to visit Iran during his first meeting with Ashton while attending the UN General Assembly in New York in Sep. 2013.
European Union Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Maria Schmid will accompany Ashton during the visit.
The EU foreign policy chief is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Zarif on March 9. She also will pay a visit to Iran's Esfahan city on March 10.
Zarif recently said that Iran and P5+1 group have agreed to hold meetings every month until June at the level of Iranian foreign minister and European Union's foreign policy chief.
Iran and the P5+1 (Russia, China, France, Germany, UK and the US) held meetings in Vienna in February to work out a comprehensive deal. The two sides signed an interim deal on Iran's nuclear energy programme in Geneva on November 24, 2013. The deal took effect on Jan. 20.
Under the agreement, the six major powers agreed to give Iran access to its $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if the country fulfils the deal's terms which offer sanctions relief in exchange for steps on curbing the Iranian nuclear program.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical research instead.