Iran, US to Resume Nuclear Talks on Friday
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program will resume in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday with a bilateral meeting between deputy foreign ministers from Iran and the US, a senior Iranian negotiator announced on Thursday.
Seyed Abbas Araqchi said he and other Iranian negotiators including Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi are slated to meet the US negotiating team headed by Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman.
The talks will resume on Saturday at the level of deputies, but Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry will also join the negotiations on Sunday and Monday, Araqchi announced.
After the fourth day, the talks will likely resume at the level of the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), the Iranian official added.
In similar remarks on Wednesday, US state department announced that Wendy Sherman and the US negotiating team will travel on Thursday to Geneva where they will meet with Iranian officials.
“These bilateral consultations will take place in the context of the P5+1 (the five permanent UNSC members plus Germany) nuclear negotiations with Iran, led by EU Special Advisor Catherine Ashton,” the statement, issued on Wednesday, said.
According to the statement, Sherman’s delegation will include Robert Malley, the National Security Council’s point person on Iran, and Christopher Backemeyer, the State Department official responsible for sanctions policy.
Deputy Secretary General for the European Union's External Action Service Helga Schmid would also join the bilateral talks, the statement said.
The new round of talks will come as Iran's Zarif and US's Kerry have recently held a number of bilateral meetings.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as P5+1 and E3+3) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has affirmed that any nuclear deal between Iran and world powers should be implementable, stressing that "no deal will be better than a bad one," including a two-phased agreement.
