Senior Iranian, Chinese Negotiators Meet in Tehran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Seyed Abbas Araqchi, one of Iran's senior negotiators in nuclear talks with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UNSC members plus Germany), and his Chinese counterpart discussed the latest developments in the talks between Iran and world powers over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
In a Sunday meeting in Tehran, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Araqchi and the visiting Chinese official Wang Qun reviewed the latest status of nuclear talks and emphasized the necessity for continued consultations between the two countries on the issue.
Qun, who is the director general of Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, is accompanying the Chinese FM Wang Yi in his visit to Iran at the head of a high-ranking delegation.
Earlier on Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yi voiced optimism about the prospects of the negotiations between Iran and six world powers over Tehran’s nuclear issue, saying that the talks have created a “historic opportunity” which should be seized to reach a final deal.
“I believe that a historic opportunity has been created in the nuclear negotiations, but there are still some problems that should be resolved,” the Chinese diplomat, whose country is one of the negotiating parties in the nuclear talks, said in a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on Sunday.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.