TEHRAN - Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany wrapped up two days of talks in Istanbul on Saturday but did not set a date for the next round of the negotiations.

“The talks focused on common ground for cooperation,” Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili, who represented Iran at the talks, told reporters at a press conference held in Istanbul after the end of the talks.
He also said that Iran is still ready to engage in additional negotiations, but the talks should be based on logic.
Iran has repeatedly said that it will never give in to the major powers’ pressure applied through threats and the imposition of sanctions.
The Istanbul meeting was the second round of talks since the negotiations resumed last month in Geneva, breaking a 14-month hiatus.
The Iranian negotiators insisted on Iran’s principled stances and refused to discuss the issues raised outside the framework of the Geneva agreement.
According to an informed source, on Friday the representatives of the major powers tried to raise issues outside the framework of the Geneva agreement.
After the end of the Geneva talks, Jalili announced that Iran and the 5+1 group (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) had agreed that the future talks would focus on common ground for cooperation.
However, the 5+1 group reneged on the agreement, and after the end of the Geneva talks, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represented the major power at the Geneva and Istanbul talks, read out a statement saying the nuclear issue would be the focus of the next round of talks, a move which drew strong criticism from Iranian officials.
Iranian officials have made it clear that Iran will not negotiate or compromise on its inalienable nuclear rights but said they are always ready to hold talks with the major powers on major international issues, including nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
“Iran is the most cooperative member of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Jalili stated at the press conference.
So, it has the right to continue its civilian nuclear energy program, he said.
He also told the major powers to stop adopting illegal stances toward Iran’s nuclear program.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran’s main negotiator said that a nuclear fuel swap based on the Tehran Declaration could be a good area for cooperation.
On May 17, 2010, Iran, Brazil, and Turkey signed the Tehran Declaration, according to which Iran would send 1200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium to fuel the Tehran research reactor.
On Friday, the six major powers sought to convince Iran to consider a nuclear fuel swap proposal but said the terms of the proposal, first discussed in 2009, should be modified.
According to the original draft proposal, Iran would have received fuel for the Tehran research reactor from France and Russia in return for shipping out most of its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium.
However, on Saturday Iran set two preconditions for talks on the West’s new fuel swap proposal: first, Iran’s right to enrich uranium should be recognized, and second, the sanctions imposed on Iran should be lifted.
Door remains open for Iran
Addressing a press conference at the end of the talks, Ashton said there were no further meetings planned at the present, but the door remains open for Iran, Reuters reported.
“The process can go forward if Iran chooses to respond positively,” she said, adding, “We now wait to hear… whether Iran will respond on reflection.”
Elsewhere in her remarks, Ashton said the six major powers were “disappointed” with the stance taken by Iran during the talks, and its preconditions were unacceptable.
Iran rejects U.S. request for bilateral meeting
According to the Fars news agency, Iran turned down the request made by the U.S. representative, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, to hold bilateral talks with the Iranian negotiators.
“Iran declined the request for a bilateral meeting between Iran and the United States on the sidelines of the Istanbul talks,” Abolfazl Zohrevand, an aide to Iran’s main negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said on Saturday.