LONDON The British Foreign Office confirmed Thursday that the first official meeting between Iran and the European Union in over a year will take place in Brussels on May 19. The meeting will be held at senior official level with the EU represented by Troika, comprising Luxembourg, Britain and Austria the past, present and future presidency holders. The talks are to be largely exploratory and to discuss arrangements for future meetings, but only on the agenda will be issues of mutual interests as well as matters of concern.

Britain, as the current EU president, was asked by European foreign ministers at the end of March to arrange official talks with Iran. It followed a decision to resume political contacts a month earlier. The aim of the new approach is to develop a constructive engagement to replace the previously discredited critical dialogue that ended after the notorious Mykonos trial in Germany last March. (IRNA)