Iran and the European Union (EU) kicked off their twice-yearly meeting in Tehran on Monday with a long agenda, including trade, human rights, drug trafficking and other regional and international issues.
Mid-ranking officials of both sides are taking part in the talks, which take place alternately every six months in Tehran and the capital of the country holding the revolving presidency of the EU, according to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
Shamseddin Kharegani, the director of the Western European desk at the foreign ministry, said on Saturday that a "critical dialogue" between the EU and Iran began in 1992, with six similar gatherings already held by the two sides.
These meetings will be at the deputy foreign ministerial level, and the EU representation will be via the Troika Committee, composed of members from Belgium, Spain, the EU Commission, as well as a representative from the EU ministerial secretariat, he added.
He said that the talks would focus on three main topics of mutual EU-Iran cooperation, regional issues and international matters.
Last week, a European diplomat in Tehran told AFP that the meeting would pay serious attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that Iran would be looking for the EU to play a greater role.
Iran does not recognize the Jewish state, and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that needs to be eliminated.
The US maintains a complicated set of sanctions in Iran designed to discourage EU members and other nations from investing heavily in the Islamic republic's huge oil industry – Albawaba.com
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