A top Iranian official says that the Islamic Republic and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have agreed to continue talks on cooperating in areas of common interest, Press TV reported.
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili said in an interview with the euronews channel on Wednesday that the forthcoming multifaceted negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 delegates in Istanbul will focus on "common concerns."
He made the remarks following talks between Iran and the P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany, which concluded in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday.
The talks were held between Jalili and the P5+1 delegates, led by EU Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton, after the West expressed its willingness to return to the negotiating table.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian official slammed West's double standards vis-a-vis Iran's peaceful nuclear program, saying that the US-sponsored sanctions on the Islamic Republic contradicts with the apparent willingness of the West to reengage with Iran through comprehensive talks.
"It's unacceptable to have a double strategy of engaging in negotiations while exerting pressure," asserted Jalili, adding that "We say this must be rejected."
The Iranian chief negotiator also made it quite clear that that the rights of the Iranian nation are non-negotiable, adding that negotiations cannot possibly continue "under the shadow of pressure."
Jalili further made a reference to chilling manifestations of double standards pursued by some major powers against the Iranian nation and, in doing so, criticized the United States for its plans to deploy hundreds of its nuclear warheads in Europe and providing Israel with nuclear weapons.
He also placed a heavy emphasis on the need to tackle some major international concerns such as the global disarmament and reiterated that the world should spare no effort to end nuclear proliferation.
Elsewhere in the interview, the Iranian top negotiators vigorously condemned recent terror attacks against two Iranian nuclear scientists and said the United Nations should bear responsibilities for the attacks.
On November 29, unidentified terrorists detonated bombs in cars belonging to Dr. Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi-- both among the prominent scholars and nuclear scientists at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
Professor Shahriari was killed during the attack while Abbasi and his wife sustained injures and were transferred to a hospital.
"International nuclear inspectors take the names of our scientists and give them to the [UN] Security Council," Jalili complained. "Then the Security Council makes them public, and then the terrorists kill them. So the Security Council must give an explanation on this to the international community."
Iran and the P5+1 group have agreed to hold the next round of talks in Istanbul in late January.
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