"We welcome your return to the negotiations based on cooperation on the common points"

Iran said on Tuesday it has responded to a letter from European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on the resumption of nuclear negotiations stalled since January 2011.
  
"We welcome your return to the negotiations based on cooperation on the common points," Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was quoted as saying in the letter, according to a report by the Arabic-language Al-Alam television. It said the letter was handed over by Tehran's envoy to the EU.
  
"The developments in recent months have shown that the Iran's proposal package three years ago was based on the correct understanding of the realities," Jalili said in the letter. He added that "respecting the nation's rights and refraining from pressure are the two main pillars of cooperation."
  
Ashton, in a letter sent in early February following unsuccessful January talks in Istanbul, reiterated the group's position on Iran's nuclear issue. According to her spokesman, she also affirmed that the world powers were keen to continue talks with Iran without any preconditions.

On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said in Istanbul that Tehran would respond "soon" to Ashton's letter. "We welcome the wish of the 5+1 Group to return to the path of negotiations once again," he said, referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany who are negotiating with Iran over its atomic program. "We have always been ready for talks, and we are ready today," he said.