Significant understanding reached on some technical issues in N-talks: Salehi

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says the sides negotiating the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program have reached a significant common understanding on certain technical issues, but there are still some problematic matters that need to be resolved.

“What I can say from the technical and partly legal viewpoint is that we have reached a significant common understanding and I have said this before. There are one or two issues that are problematic and we have to see whether we can resolve them in the technical sphere,” Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Saturday.

He described the talks as “difficult” but added that all members of the Iranian negotiating team are “working hard” to push the negotiations forward.

“We have to bring technical arguments and they have to do the same so that we can come to a unified conclusion and a common understanding on the issues,” Salehi said, noting, “Negotiations sometimes face dead-ends, we have to move beyond them using initiatives, new ideas and some sort of compromise.”

The senior Iranian official once again stressed that there will be no deal unless the two sides agree on all issues.

“There won’t be an agreement even if there’s non-agreement on a single issue, so we have to agree on all the issues… If we resolve the technical aspects but don’t resolve the sanctions issue, this will not lead us to any kind of conclusion,” Salehi said.

He stated that reaching a common understanding is not the same as reaching an agreement.

“Agreement is the final stage; an agreement will only be achieved when we reach the final stage and when all issues pertaining to the legal, technical and political aspects are clarified,” Salehi said.

Senior negotiators from Iran and the United States kicked off another day of their latest round of talks on the Iranian nuclear program in Lausanne on Saturday.

Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, held talks with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.

The three later joined Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry for talks to find solutions to the outstanding issues between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 for a comprehensive nuclear deal.

Iran and the P5+1 countries - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany - have been negotiating to reach an overarching deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program as a deadline slated for July 1 draws closer.

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