Talks with US Exclusively Nuclear Related: Iran’s FM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his upcoming meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva will include only subjects relating Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
“On Wednesday, I will discuss with Kerry only the nuclear negotiations to see whether it is possible to accelerate and advance the talks,” Zarif said at a joint press conference with his Cypriot counterpart in Tehran on Sunday.
Top Iranian and US diplomats are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting in Switzerland’s Geneva on Wednesday, a day before negotiating teams from the two countries resume formal talks on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear activities.
“The talks we have held with the US on the nuclear issue have been and will remain to be exceptional. We do not negotiate with the US in the other spheres,” Zarif explained.
“The talks are confined to the nuclear issues alone and will remain that way,” he stressed.
The Iranian minister also noted that talks with Kerry will last a day, but he will have other plans in Europe after that meeting.
Zarif’s deputy and a senior member of the Iranian team of nuclear negotiators, Seyed Abbas Araqchi, had announced earlier on Friday that Zarif and Kerry will try to “offer the necessary guidance” before deputies hold nuclear talks.
Negotiating teams from Iran and the US are slated to hold bilateral meetings in the Swiss city from January 15 to 17.
Later on January 18, Iran and the group of six world powers (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) will resume talks at the deputy ministerial level.
Earlier on Saturday, Kerry met Oman’s Sultan Qaboos in Germany. After his visit to Germany, Kerry flew to India for a trade fair and will later travel to Geneva, where he will see Zarif.
