Iran, US start 2nd day of nuclear talks in Swiss city of Montreux
Officials from Iran and the United States have begun the second day of their latest round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program in the Swiss city of Montreux.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry are heading the talks on Tuesday.
The meeting is also attended by head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, deputy foreign ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, Iranian president's special assistant, Hossein Fereidoun, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, as well as US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, and European Union's Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Schmid.
The Iranian and American negotiators met for 2.5 hours on Monday.
The AEOI chief and US energy secretary also held a separate meeting for three hours on Monday and then joined other negotiators in the ministerial talks.
Focus on sanctions
Speaking at the end of the first day of talks on Monday, Zarif said the negotiations offered an opportunity to discuss political matters.
“This round of nuclear negotiations is a good chance for the two [foreign] ministers to discuss political matters, particularly the immediate removal of sanctions,” Zarif said.
During the February talks in Geneva, the Iranian and US negotiators, accompanied by the two countries’ high-ranking technical teams, managed to find solutions to some issues, he added.
Iran’s top diplomat emphasized that dialog would certainly be the only option to solve the outstanding issues in the talks. Zarif further expressed hope that the two sides would succeed in taking major steps toward the settlement of the Western dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program.
The new round of talks in Montreux comes as representatives from Iran and the United States held three rounds of intense negotiations in the Swiss city of Geneva on February 22-23 to bridge their differences ahead of a key July 1 deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal.
Iran and the P5+1 countries – Britain, France, China, Russia, and the United States plus Germany – are in talks to narrow their differences on outstanding issues related to Iran's nuclear energy program. The two sides have missed two deadlines since an interim deal was signed in November 2013. They have set July 1 as the next deadline for the talks.
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