Iran, Sextet to Resume Nuclear Talks in 10 Days
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran and six world powers will resume the negotiations over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program in 10 days, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
“We will resume talks in ten days,” Zarif told ITAR-TASS on the sidelines of the 4th summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states in southern Russian city of Astrakhan on Monday.
“These are meetings with ministers of separate countries, not all P5+1 mediators,” he added.
Meanwhile, Zarif noted that the composition of the negotiating team from the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) will be determined by EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton who coordinates diplomacy with Iran in behalf of the six world powers.
Asked whether he plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Zarif noted that Iran had held constant talks with Russia. “We do not have any difficulties with Russia,” he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that the nuclear talks with the G5+1 will resume in a European city by mid-October.
The nuclear talks will resume in Vienna or Geneva, Araqchi, who is a member of the Iranian team of negotiators, said in an interview with Kyodo News.
Nuclear negotiators representing Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) held the latest round of talks on Tehran’s civilian nuclear program in New York from September 18 to September 26. The negotiations were wrapped up on Friday night without making any tangible progress.
