Iran’s Araqchi Rejects Two-Stage Nuclear Deal

“We will have no two-stage deal,” the Iranian diplomat told reporters in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday night after a day of tight meetings with Americans.

On Friday, delegations from Iran and the US kicked off a new round of bilateral talks on Tehran’s nuclear energy program in Geneva at the level of deputy foreign ministers.

The European Union’s deputy secretary general for the external action service, Helga Maria Schmid, also attended the Friday talks that lasted for more than seven hours.

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.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution 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.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said on Thursday that the Iranian nuclear negotiating team acts based on the guidelines set by the Supreme Leader.

As the Leader has noted, Afkham said, Iran will only accept an agreement which is reached in one stage and includes all outlines and details together.

Elsewhere in his comments in Geneva, Araqchi hailed as “positive” and “serious” the atmosphere of talks with Americans, noting that the positive circumstance does not mean that “breakthrough” has been achieved, but the discussions are underway “closely and intensively”.

He also added that “innovation and changes” are sought in the “manner and style” of the negotiations to speed up the process of talks.

The Iranian and American diplomats continue talks on Saturday too. Thereafter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry will join the negotiations on Sunday and Monday.