Iran, P5+1 resume work on drafting text of final nuclear deal

Senior representatives of Iran and the P5+1 group of countries have held talks on drafting the text of a possible final agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, held a three-hour meeting with European Union deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Monday.

The members of Iran’s negotiating team also held discussions with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman on the draft of the final deal.

Meanwhile, experts from Iran, led by director general for political and international security affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Hamid Baeidinejad, and the six world powers held simultaneous talks.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany are holding talks to finalize the text of a possible deal over Iran’s nuclear program by the end of June.

The two sides reached a mutual understanding on the key parameters of the potential deal in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

Foreign ministers returning to Vienna

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who returned to Tehran from Vienna early Monday, is scheduled to rejoin the nuclear talks on Tuesday.

Director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi and Hossein Fereydoun, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s special aide, are also set to join the negotiating team.

French and German foreign ministers Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier as well as British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond are set to return to the Austrian capital for sensitive nuclear talks as a self-imposed June-end deadline arrives Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the French foreign minister said he plans to return to Vienna as Iran and the world powers work to finalize a landmark deal on Iran's nuclear program.

"I will be back in Vienna this week," Fabius said.

"We have made some progress, but still it is not the end of the process,” he added.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said he would head to Vienna on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that it is still too soon to tell if a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran is within reach.

"We're just working and it's too early to make any judgments," Kerry told reporters in Vienna.

The top US diplomat sat with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano in Vienna on Monday.

On Sunday, the Iranian foreign minister held separate intensive talks with Kerry, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Hammond, and Steinmeier in Vienna. Zarif also met with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Li Baodong.

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