Nuclear Talks' Progress below Expectations: Iranian Negotiator
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Progress in drafting the text of a comprehensive nuclear deal between Iran and the group of six world powers falls below expectations, top Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi said.
"Differences on the text of the agreement have narrowed to some extent, but the progress (in the talks) falls short of our expectations," Araqchi, also a deputy foreign minister, told IRIB in Vienna on Monday.
He made the comments before leaving for Luxembourg to join Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for higher-level negotiations.
Araqchi and his colleague Majid Takht Ravanchi, have been holding regular daily meetings with the European Union deputy foreign policy chief, Helga Schmid, in Vienna since June 17 in a push to finalize the text of a comprehensive nuclear deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Elsewhere in the interview, Araqchi described the text of the deal as "complicated", adding that it covers diverse "technical, legal and political" aspects.
On a self-imposed end-June deadline for striking an accord, the Iranian negotiator said June 30 is not a cut-off date and the parties will keep negotiating for some more days if necessary.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Zarif, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Luxemburg to meet Britain's Philip Hammond, Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France's Laurent Fabius and the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to discuss the text of the deal.
Diplomatic negotiations on finalizing the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will continue steadily until at least the self-imposed deadline of June 30.
On April 2, Iran and the Group 5+1 (alternatively known as the P5+1 or E3+3) reached a framework nuclear agreement in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final deal until the end of June.
