Nuclear talks in New York resumes

The talks between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China are re-starting after a two-month hiatus and amid Washington and Tehran ruling out cooperation on fighting Islamic State militants who have taken over swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will discuss the negotiations on a long-term nuclear deal over lunch on Thursday, diplomats said. The EU has been a kind of interlocutor for the six powers.

Diplomats from the six countries will begin meeting among themselves on Thursday before they all sit down with the Iranian delegation on Friday. The negotiations are expected to run until at least Sept. 26 on the sidelines of next week's annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.

Ahead of the formal negotiations, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman - the number 2 and 3 diplomats at the State Department - will hold bilateral talks with Iranian officials on Thursday and Friday, the State Department said.

"The talks are going to be on the nuclear issue. At times other topics have come up on the sidelines, but that’s not the purpose or the intent, as is always the case," a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity about the bilateral talks.

U.S. and Iranian officials discussed the crisis in Iraq on the sidelines of the Vienna nuclear talks in June, though they have ruled out cooperating with each other on dealing with the threat posed by Islamic State in the region.