Iran, Sextet Yet to Draft Final N. Deal: Spokeswoman
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman dismissed the notion that the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and world powers are conducted according to an available draft of a final agreement, reiterating that the deal remains to be drafted as early as May 13.
Speaking in her weekly press conference on Tuesday, Marziyeh Afkham underlined that delegates representing Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are planned to start drafting a final nuclear agreement in the next round of talks, slated for May 13 in Vienna.
She rejected the claim that the parties are pushing ahead with the talks based on an available “draft on the table”, stressing that no such draft deal has been shaped so far.
Afkham, however, made clear that the Iranian team of negotiators, like the other parties, has formulated a plan on how to proceed with the talks in the best way.
“This is natural that each negotiating party has a roadmap and a draft which is based on the issues and the rights that it is pursuing,” she explained.
The spokeswoman also noted that the forthcoming round of talks, aimed at drafting a final, long-awaited deal on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program, will be “strenuous and complicated”, maybe tougher than the previous ones.
The latest round of nuclear talks between representatives of Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as P5+1 or E3+3) wrapped up in the Austrian capital of Vienna on April 9.
The negotiating parties are slated to convene the next meeting on May 13, again in Vienna, to start drafting the text of an ultimate agreement to end the decade-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear case.
The two sides 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.