Zarif, Ashton Resume Talks in Geneva


Zarif, Ashton Resume Talks in Geneva

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – For the second time on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held a meeting at the Swiss city of Geneva, as intensive negotiations between Iran and the six major world powers are in progress for a third consecutive day.

The two high-ranking officials have held several sessions of meetings over the past two days, with the aim of reaching an agreement to help end the 10-year standoff over Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.

Foreign Minister Zarif is also Iran’s top negotiator in the nuclear talks and Catherine Ashton oversees diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany).

The fresh meeting comes while Zarif and Ashton held a one-to-one gathering earlier on Friday morning.

Their previous meeting ended after an hour as the negotiating teams representing the six major world powers (also known as P5+1 or E3+3) entered internal consultations.

This is the second time in a month that the Swiss city of Geneva is hosting representatives from Iran and the group of six major world powers. They had three days of intensive talks on November 7-9.

During the previous round of talks, the two sides managed to narrow their differences on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, though there were hitches that stopped them from reaching an interim deal at the end of the talks.

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