Considerable progress made in Geneva nuclear talks: Iran official

A senior Iranian negotiator has expressed satisfaction with the “considerable” progress in the process of the recent Geneva talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Representatives from Iran and the United States held nuclear talks in the Swiss city of Geneva earlier this week. They held three rounds of negotiations in an attempt to narrow their differences.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Monday after the end of the talks, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 countries - Britain, France, China, Russia, and the United States plus Germany – will resume their discussions in the Swiss city next week.

“A considerable progress was made in the recent [nuclear] talks in Geneva and we hope that we could take more positive steps in the next week’s negotiations,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi said on Wednesday.

Takht-e-Ravanchi, who is in Denmark for a two-day official visit, made the remarks in a meeting with Denmark’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Martin Lidegaard.

The Iranian official further said that certain members of the P5+1 group have resorted to unfair sanctions to exert pressure on the Islamic republic, calling for the unconditional removal of the anti-Iran bans.

Syria unrest needs ‘political solution’

Elsewhere in his remarks, Takht-e-Ravanchi pointed to the ongoing conflict in Syria and underlined the necessity for a political solution as the sole way to settle the nearly four years of crisis that has plagued the Arab country.

The Iranian official expressed the Islamic Republic’s readiness to play a more active and constructive role in reaching a diplomatic and democratic solution to the Syrian crisis.

Condemning the terrorist moves in the region and across the world, Takht-e-Ravanchi called for concerted efforts by the international community to fight the menace.

“Today, terrorism is a serious threat to the world community which necessitates international cooperation to counter it,” he said.

Lidegaard, for his part, highlighted Iran’s effective and constructive role in the establishment of peace and stability in the region.

He further expressed his country’s support for peaceful settlement of the conflict in Syria in the presence of effective players as well as all parties involved in the unrest.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 210,000 people.

YH/NN/HMV

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk