ALMATY, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Iranian delegates and representatives of the so-called P5+1 countries and the European Union began here Tuesday a new round of talks on Iran's nuclear program.
The following is a brief introduction of the previous talks between Iran and the six powers, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany.
In 2006, after the Iranian nuclear issue was filed to the U.N. Security Council, officials of the council's five permanent members plus Germany met to discuss the issue and established the Iran-P5+1 talks.
On June 14, 2008, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Javier Solana, handed Tehran an updated package of incentives proposed by the six countries in exchange for the freezing of Iran's enrichment efforts.
On July 19, 2008, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and Solana met in Geneva, Switzerland, in an attempt to break the deadlock in the nuclear issue.
U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns and senior diplomats from the other five countries also attended the meeting. Solana and the representatives from the six powers reiterated their firm stance to address the issue through diplomatic negotiations.
On Oct. 1, 2009, Iran pledged to "cooperate fully and immediately" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during talks with top envoys from the six world powers in Geneva.
On Dec. 6, 2010, a two-day closed-door meeting attended by Jalili and Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy was held in Geneva.
No substantive progress was achieved at the talks due to fundamental disagreements over uranium enrichment. Both sides agreed to meet for a second round of talks in late January in Istanbul, Turkey.
On Jan. 22, 2011, a new round of talks was held in Istanbul, attended by Iran and the six world powers. The talks again failed to reach any agreement on Iranian nuclear program. But both sides left the door open for future negotiations.
Between April 14 and June 19, 2012, three rounds of talks were held between P5+1 and Iran, respectively in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow.
To implement the consensus reached in Moscow, an early follow-up technical expert-level meeting was held in Istanbul on July 3, 2012. Again, no decisive progress was made in the talks, but both sides were open for future discussions.
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