The talks held in Moscow on the 18-19 of June in the "six" - Iran format became the continuation of the recent dialogue with Teheran. The frequency of talks with Iran regarding its nuclear programme has never been higher than now. This is a very significant achievement, considering the background of this issue and a serious lack of trust between parties.

The intensity of contacts represents a specific challenge, because it raises the expectation bar and sets the goal among all participants to be well prepared for each round. As of right now, all expectations are justified. Each round of the last three in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow was more detailed and deep rather than the previous one, and the degree of preparedness of Iranian delegations and "Six" delegations was also on the rise.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that now we have quite large amount of material, which the parties exchanged between them. This material, however, requires further processing and discussions, including on the level of technical expertise. Hence, one of the most important achievements of the round is an agreement to set an expert meeting of technical experts on 3 July in Istanbul. It is essential that there is practically no pauses - meeting will be held just two weeks after the Moscow round. There is time available only for the positional refinement of ideas. All of these is a reflection of all parties to move forward.

We can't help mentioning that the two sides do not agree on the essence and substance of the issues. Moscow round confirmed the exclusive complexity of finding the pieces to be put together to move towards a mutually acceptable solution.

To summarize on the substance of the faced issues, it differentiates in priorities among parties during the negotiations and their perception of the challenges facing them, as well as rather complex interoperability in approaches of both parties in what should be done in the first place, what in the second place, etc. The main discussion is now around this topic and Moscow round unfortunately did not lead to any advances in this area. All of the major issues, including the need to restore trust (including the work on the issues of 20-percent enrichment of uranium in Iran), the recognition of Iran's right for the enrichment of uranium, and issues associated with the understanding of the term "reciprocity" in the context of these steps and how to balance the reciprocal steps, were discussed in plenary and in the course of numerous meetings in other formats.

The work should be continued because it is a diligent process. Unfortunately, there are no changes in this direction. We have to admit this, and such a statement confronts challenges for negotiators for the future. After the expert meeting in Istanbul, contacts between Deputy Secretary of the Supreme Council of National Security of Iran A. Bageri-Kyani and Deputy of Higher Representative of UN H. Schmidt, and then after C. Ashton and S. Jalili are planned. Thus, there will be an excuse to assess the situation and agree to continue negotiations already in the full format of delegations.

The Russian side is in favour of such scheme of actions. The pause should not be dragged. There are a lot of questions and no time to waste, considering all the factors and complex situation in the region and around INP. We will continue to exert all possible efforts to facilitate finding mutually acceptable solutions.

Russia, participating in the "Six", operates in a transparent and understandable matter to all. We have our own ideas and approaches, which we are talking openly, in detail and honestly about within the group "5 plus 1" and with the Iranian side. We act based on our understanding of the logic of the negotiation process. We hope that this will help us finding an outcome acceptable for all.

Our proposal for a settlement model presented by V. Putin in his article "Russia and the changing world" is the basis for the Russian position. S.V.Lavrov's proposal, which is a definite plan based on phasing and reciprocity, is in power as well. We believe that the members of the "Six" and Iran could weigh the situation and assess the limits of possibility based upon Russian ideas. We think that based on this the search for compromise solutions could and should be done.