Iran Hopes for 'Fair' Settlement of 'Fabricated' Crisis on Nuclear Case
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham expressed the hope on Wednesday that a lingering fabricated crisis about Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program would come to an end in a fair manner in the new Iranian year.
“We hope that the bogus and fabricated crisis relating to Iran’s nuclear program would be resolved fairly next year,” Afkham said in her last weekly press conference in the current Iranian year, which ends on Friday.
With the Iranian new year holiday of Nowrouz approaching this week, Iranian and American diplomats have launched a decisive round of diplomacy in the Swiss city of Lausanne since Sunday to pave the way for a landmark nuclear agreement between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Afkham made it clear in her press conference that “very intensive and sensitive” talks are underway in Switzerland.
“On technical discussions, much progress has been achieved,” she noted.
In similar comments on Tuesday, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi, who is engaged in technical talks with US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, said they have managed to overcome differences on 90 percent of the issues in the course of talks.
“We have reached mutual understanding on a majority of issues, there just remains a single sticking point, which is very important,” Salehi told IRIB.
Elsewhere in the press conference, the spokeswoman said she would not confirm an Al Jazeera report that the Lausanne talks have been extended until Saturday.
Also asked about the possibility of the presence of top British, French and German diplomats in the talks, Afkham said, “I am not in a position to say whether the European foreign ministers will go to Lausanne or not.”
Back on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said political directors from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are due to join the Lausanne talks to “help the discussions during the final days of this round of negotiations.”
Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have met several times over the past days in Lausanne in an effort to bridge the gaps ahead of a June 30 deadline for a final accord.
