Iran nuclear talks extended to July 7: US State Department

The talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries over Tehran’s nuclear energy program have been extended until July 7, the US State Department says.

"The P5+1 and Iran have decided to extend the measures under (2013 interim deal) until July 7 to allow more time for negotiations to reach a long-term solution," State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said on Tuesday, as a June 30 midnight deadline approached.

Iran and the P5+1 group -- Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – are negotiating in Vienna to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the longstanding Western dispute over the Islamic Republic’s civilian nuclear work.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday he believes that an agreement to resolve the 13-year issue is "within reach".

The nuclear negotiations are "progressing in a positive direction. There remain questions, mostly regarding procedural issues rather than technical," said Lavrov, who joined the talks in Vienna earlier in the day.

"We have all reason to believe that results are within reach," Lavrov told Russian television after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif returned to in the Austrian capital following consultations with officials in Tehran.

He said the talks between Tehran and the six world powers have reached a “very sensitive” phase.

“The only agreement that the Iranian nation will accept is a just and balanced deal based on the national dignity and the rights of the Iranian people," he added.

“All the Iranian officials have said they are ready for rational and wise negotiations," he continued.

He emphasized that a final deal should be in accordance with the parameters of an agreement reached between the two sides in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

If a final deal is reached, it would lift all nuclear-related sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain steps Tehran will take with regard to its nuclear program.

The so-called Iran nuclear crisis is a “myth” and a “lie,” Dr. Kevin Barrett, an American scholar in Wisconsin, wrote in an article published by Press TV on April 6.

“That lie was meticulously constructed by neoconservative Zionists to serve their interests, according to their philosophy of governance, which worships big lies and views truth-speaking as dangerous to society,” Barrett wrote.

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