Iran, Sextet to Continue Talks for Second Day
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran and the six major world powers are planned to begin the second consecutive day of a fresh round of talks in Vienna today, trying to reach a comprehensive agreement on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The new round of talks between Iran and the G5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Tuesday morning.
The negotiations, which are aimed at resolving the West’s standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, commenced with a symbolic meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who leads the team of Iranian negotiators, and the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the six world powers (also known as P5+1 or E3+3).
The two sides concluded the first session of the negotiations after less than an hour on Tuesday.
Afterwards, the Iranian team of nuclear negotiators, headed by the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi, had a meeting with the representatives of Germany, France and Britain (E3) later in the evening.
And later on, the Iranian negotiators attended a bilateral meeting with the US delegation, headed by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.
The bilateral meeting lasted for 80 minutes, but no details were provided afterwards.
“The conversation was productive and focused mainly on how the comprehensive talks will proceed from here,” a senior US State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Thereafter, Araqchi held a bilateral meeting with European Union Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Maria Schmid in the evening.
Deputies foreign minister of the seven participating countries were also present in that meeting.
And on Wednesday, the delegations representing Iran and the six powers will once again sit at the table in pursuit of a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Araqchi and EU’s Schmid will reportedly preside over today’s meeting, which is slated for 10 a.m. local time (12:30 Tehran time).
It is the first round of high-level negotiations since a November interim deal, clinched between Iran and the G5+1.
On November 24, 2013, the two sides signed an interim six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The breakthrough deal (the Joint Plan of Action), which has come into effect since January 20, stipulates that over the course of six months, Iran and the six countries will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on Iran.
