European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, (l) and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, pose for a photograph prior to talks on Tehran's peaceful nuclear program in Geneva, July 19.

Iranian, European and US officials resumed talks on Saturday in Geneva, as part of a bid to resolve pending issues related to Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
A diplomat, who asked not to be identified, told reporters that the first round of the meeting was positive.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, consulted with his officials after the morning session with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and US Undersecretary of State William Burns.
Solana and Jalili had lunch together, while Burns ate separately with other officials from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
Director of Foreign Policy and International Affairs of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Mirbaqeri and Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari were among the Iranian delegates attending the nuclear talks.
In an opening speech, Solana referred to his recent fruitful visit to Tehran and praised Iran’s cooperation for resolving the problem.
According to the source, representatives of the participating countries expressed similar views regarding the nuclear issue and called for a comprehensive dialogue.
Jalili said all participants should derive lessons from the past and try to amend previous mistakes.
“The seven countries can prepare a better ground for more cooperation,“ he added.
Earlier, a member of the Iranian delegation told reporters that “everybody is looking forward to fruitful results from the negotiations“.
The attendance of Burns, the number three official at the State
Department, marks a major policy shift by Washington, which has not had any diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980 following the Islamic Revolution.
Some western reporters said on the sidelines of the meeting that US concerns over the positive trend of Jalili-Solana talks were the main reason behind the presence of Burns in the Geneva talks.
They opined that Washington seeks a share from the fruitful Tehran-EU talks and is concerned about its isolation.
Media reports have said that the world powers have offered to start pre-negotiations over a six-week period, during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return no further sanctions would be imposed--the so-called “freeze-freeze“ approach.
However, talking to reporters, Jalili did not accept or reject the approach.
Asked whether he would declare the result achieved during talks, Jalili said negotiation is akin to weaving a Persian carpet, which advances at a slow but steady pace, and “we hope to achieve results with the exquisiteness, precision and durability of Persian carpets“.
On the European side, Solana’s spokeswoman Christina Gallach said that “the basis for successful negotiations is very substantial“.
“We are very flexible about how to work towards our expectations ... We are ready to look at creative approaches that allow negotiations to start,“ Gallach added.
The 7 states have reportedly agreed to hold a second round of talks within two weeks.

Iraq’s main Sunni Arab bloc on Saturday ended an almost yearlong boycott of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s government, in a major boost for the country’s reconciliation program.
Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed the appointment of six ministers from the country’s main Sunni bloc, the National Concord Front, in a session attended by 190 MPs of the 275-member assembly, AFP reported.
The MPs also approved the appointment of four independents to replace ministers from the political bloc of Shiite leader
Muqtada Al-Sadr, which has boycotted the government since April last year. One of the six Sunni ministers, Rafie Al-Issawi, was voted in as a deputy prime minister to Maliki. He was minister of state for foreign affairs between 2005 and 2007.
Sunnis will also hold five other posts--the higher education, culture and communications ministerial posts, as well as ministers of state for foreign affairs and women’s affairs.
The four independents to replace the Sadrists will hold the posts of transport minister and ministers of state for tourism, provincial affairs and civil society.
The Sunni bloc, which has 44 MPs in the parliament, withdrew its ministers in August last year in protest at what it viewed as the monopolization of power by the other factions in government--the Shiites and Kurds.
One of the six later rejoined the Cabinet and was expelled from the Sunni bloc.
Sunni leaders had been insisting that the Iraqi security forces release many Sunni prisoners they believed had been unjustifiably detained.
The National Concord Front also wanted a general amnesty declared as well as greater Sunni participation in the decision-making of a government.
The Sunni boycott dealt a severe blow to Maliki’s claims that he headed a unity government and with a series of other walkouts, including by the Sadrists, his 40-member Cabinet earlier this year shrunk to almost half.
It is unclear whether the conditions put forward by the Sunnis for their return to government have been met, but in recent months relations between Maliki and Sunni Arab leaders have warmed following his decision to target Shiite militiamen.
Maliki in March launched a series of crackdowns against Shiite militiamen, starting in the southern oil city of Basra. Sadr’s
Baghdad bastion of Sadr City soon followed, and the focus is now on the southern province of Maysan.
Sadrists continue to boycott the government while the Sunnis appear to have lost the planning ministry to the Shiites after they expelled Ali Babban, the minister who refused to keep last year’s boycott and rejoined the Cabinet.