Us hopes january nuclear talks in İstanbul will bear fruit

Washington on Tuesday voiced hope that the next round of talks between six world powers and Iran , set to be held in Turkey next month, will mark "the start of a serious process" in negotiations over Tehran 's controversial nuclear program. Following talks in Geneva this week, Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) agreed to hold their next meeting in Istanbul in late January. "We hope that this will be the start of a serious process for discussions between Iran and representatives of the P5+1," US State Department spokesperson Philip J. Crowley told reporters. "We're encouraged that there will be a follow-on meeting. As we signaled before this first meeting, we were open to have multiple meetings in multiple locations, and certainly the decision to meet next month in Istanbul is a reflection of that."