Zarif Says Iran, Sextet Have Reached Halfway Stage of N. Talks
VIENNA (Tasnim) – Iranian foreign minister said Tehran and the six major world powers have just reached the halfway stage of the nuclear negotiations, noting that the next round of talks will revolve around drafting the final, comprehensive deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
“We have now reached the halfway point of negotiations on the comprehensive agreement. Over the past three months, the entire issues, considered by the sides, were taken into account,” Mohammad Javad Zarif, head of the Iranian team of nuclear negotiators, told reporters here in Vienna on Wednesday.
He made the comments at a news conference after the conclusion of the two-day talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
The latest round of nuclear talks between delegations representing Iran and the G5+1 (alternatively known as P5+1 or E3+3), which began here in the Austrian capital on Tuesday morning, came to an end on Wednesday evening.
The negotiating parties are slated to convene the next meeting on May 13, again in Vienna, to start drafting the text of a final, long-awaited deal on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The two sides have on November 24, 2013, clinched an interim six-month deal in the Swiss city of Geneva. The breakthrough deal (the Joint Plan of Action), which has come into effect since January 20, stipulates that over the course of six months, Iran and the six countries will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on Iran.
Elsewhere in his remarks in the press conference, Zarif said experts from the two sides have embarked on the first meeting of a joint commission to “discuss the ways of implementing the Joint Plan of Action.”
As regards the next round of talks, slated for May, the Iranian top negotiator announced that the parties will first agree upon a specific framework, and afterwards, details will be brought into the framework to pave the way for the ultimate accord.
He once again stressed that “sufficient and serious resolve” is necessary for reaching a final solution.
Zarif urged the other side to accept the realities on the ground and set aside illusions, reiterating that Iran’s nuclear program is totally peaceful and will continue in future.
In relevant comments earlier in the day, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined that Iran will never allow its “scientific nuclear move” to be brought to a halt, and stressed, “None of the country’s nuclear achievements could be shut down, and nobody has the right to bargain over them, and nobody will do that.”
The Supreme Leader also underlined that Iran will never slow down or stop its nuclear research and development, stressing that those scientific activities will remain firmly in place as the nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the world powers are in progress.