Iran, P5+1 begin 2nd round of Thursday talks in Vienna

Representatives from Iran and the P5+1 group of countries have kicked off a new round of negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Austrian capital city of Vienna.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi began a second round of talks on Thursday with the EU political director, Helga Schmid, and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.

Experts from both sides are also present in the meeting.

The talks on Thursday come after two rounds of intensive negotiations between the two sides on Wednesday.

The negotiating sides had sat down for the first round of negotiations earlier in the day as part of a meeting that was also attended by Hamid Baeidinejad, director general for political affairs at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, as well as Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and other experts.

Araqchi said on Wednesday that the issue of anti-Iran sanctions is one of the key topics on the agenda in the current round of talks.

The Iranian delegation in the new round of the nuclear talks will demand that the US representatives in the talks provide the Iranian team with “clear, precise information” on “the details related to the lifting of the sanctions,” he added.

Baeidinejad also told Press TV that Iran will ask for “clarification” from US negotiators with regard to “contradictory expressions” about the removal of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.

Less than 24 hours after Iran and the P5+1 reached a mutual understanding over Tehran's nuclear program earlier this month, the US published its own fact sheet detailing the parameters for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The sheet, however, had differences with the original joint statement.

Although Iran has reiterated that all sanctions have to be lifted simultaneously as soon as the final deal comes into force, the US edition indicates that the architecture of nuclear-related sanctions will be retained for much of the duration of the deal.

“Certainly, we would ask for some clarification and explanation by the US delegation on such developments,” Baeidinejad said.

The new round of the talks between representatives of Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany – are set to last three days with the aim of drafting a nuclear accord.

The two sides issued a joint statement outlining the parameters of the JCPOA over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in Switzerland on April 2.

MR/MKA/SS

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