Catherine Ashton in Iran: press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javvad Zarif

Brussels, 09 March 2014

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REMARKS

by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton at the press

conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, Tehran, 09/03/2014

Thank you Minister Zarif. You and I meet often now in the discussions on the nuclear issue,

but this is as you rightly say the first occasion when we have met in the bilateral capacity of

the High Representative of the European Union and the Foreign Minister of Iran. I want to

say thank you for your invitation to come here and for your courtesy and a very useful and

fruitful meeting.

As you have said, this was our opportunity to discuss issues of interest and concern to us in

the region, to have an opportunity to talk about the terrible situation in Syria, to focus on

areas of cooperation around the future of Afghanistan - especially we talked about the

problems and challenges we face with the drugs trade -, of course we raised the issue, as you

have done with me, of the potential of our human rights dialogue in the future, and we

talked about a way to move forward.

I consider it a really important occasion to be here in Iran and to have the opportunity to talk

about these bilateral issues. And as you said, we also took a few moments to talk about

issues concerning our next round of discussions in Vienna.

And I am very much looking forward to meeting with the President and with others whom I

have not met yet, and to have a chance to talk with them as well on the basis of our bilateral

discussions.

I came here yesterday on International Women’s day and I want to say too that it was a

great privilege to meet with women from Iran, and to have the chance to celebrate with

FOR FURTHER DETAILS:

Michael Mann +32 498 999 780 - +32 2 584 9780- [email protected] @EUHighRepSpox

Maja Kocijancic +32 498 984 425 - +32 2 298 65 70 - [email protected] @AshtonSpox_Maja

Sebastien Brabant +32 460 75 09 98 - [email protected]

Nabila Massrali +32 460 75 41 75 – [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter @eu_eeas

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www.eeas.europa.eu

them International Women’s day and to talk about issues for women in Iran and in Europe,

and indeed across the world. Thank you.

Question to High Representative Ashton on the Iranian nuclear issue

All I would do is refer you to the agreement that we reached, the interim agreement in

November and if you look at how we talked about the way forward, I think that should give

you a real indication of the approach that the international community wants to take. I want

to commend Minister Zarif and his team for the work that they have done. I have been

engaged in discussions with Iran for nearly four years and I think this interim agreement is

really really important, but not as important as a comprehensive agreement that we are

currently engaged in. Difficult, challenging, there is no guarantee it will succeed, but I think

it’s very important with the support of the people of Iran for the work that is going on by the

Minister and his team and with the support of the International Community for my work that

we should aim to try and succeed.

Audio-visual material of the visit is available on Europe by Satellite (EbS) is on

http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm

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مؤتمر صحفي للممثلة العليا كاثرين أشتون مع وزير الخارجية الإيراني محمد جواد ظريف في طهران، تناول الوضع المروع في سورية.