Iran's Top N. Negotiator Meets IAEA Chief in Austria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iranian foreign minister and the country’s top negotiator in the nuclear talks with the major world powers held a meeting with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano in the Austrian capital today.
Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Japanese head of the UN nuclear watchdog had a bilateral meeting on Tuesday morning, ahead of a fresh round of nuclear talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, Britain, the US, China, France and Germany) in Vienna.
Earlier in the day, Zarif also held three other separate meetings with a top Russian diplomat and two high-ranking Austrian officials.
The first meeting on Tuesday brought the Iranian lead negotiator and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov together.
Afterwards, Zarif met his Austrian counterpart, Sebastian Kurz, at a working breakfast.
The get-together included diverse issues of discussion, with the focus on bilateral relations between Iran and Austria.
And later, the Iranian foreign minister held another meeting with Austrian President Heinz Fischer.
In a separate development on Monday night, Foreign Minister Zarif and European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton attended a working dinner and discussed the ways to begin with the new round of nuclear talks, now in progress.
The fresh round of negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 (also known as P5+1 and E3+3) kicked off officially in Vienna at 11 a.m. local time (1330 Tehran time), with a symbolic bilateral meeting between Zarif and the Ashton, who represents the six world powers in talks with Iran.
After the symbolic bilateral meeting, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi and Helga Maria Schmid, EU's deputy secretary general for political affairs handled the talks.
The new round of talks, which are expected to be tight, technical and complicated, are aimed at finding an ultimate, comprehensive deal on Iran’s nuclear program.