Iran, US pursuing nuclear talks closely, intensively: Araqchi

Iran and the United States are pursuing negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program “closely and intensely,” a senior member of the Iranian negotiating team says.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi told IRIB that he held “positive and serious” discussions with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and European Union's deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday.

“We seek innovation and development in the way the negotiations are being held in a bid to speed up work,” Araqchi said.

He added that "positive and serious" does not mean that the parties to the talks managed to make “extraordinary progress,”  but that intense discussions are underway on the details of the nuclear issue.

“After one year of negotiations on all aspects and topics, we have come to a point where we should enter into [talks about] details,” the Iranian negotiator said.

He emphasized that Iran intends to clinch a final nuclear deal with the P5+1 group that includes "integrated generalities and details."

"That's the reason why we have to enter into details in all issues and at all stages," Araqchi pointed out.

Iran-US nuclear talks

Representatives of Iran and the United States kicked off a fresh round of intensive talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva on Friday to narrow remaining gaps ahead of the March 31 deadline for a final agreement.

The Iranian and the US nuclear negotiations are scheduled to resume talks on Saturday in an attempt to discuss the timetable for the lifting of sanctions against Iran as well as the extent of Tehran's nuclear activities.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to join the talks on Sunday and hold discussions for two days.

Zarif and Kerry have already held meetings on numerous occasions, mostly in European capitals.

Salehi-Moniz meeting

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi is scheduled to hold talks with US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in Geneva.

The AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Friday that Salehi would leave Tehran for Geneva on Saturday to discuss “the technical issues” of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group with Moniz.

Moniz, who is himself a nuclear physicist, was headed to Geneva on Saturday at the request of the secretary of state for the first time to join the talks with Iranian negotiators.  

"Department of Energy officials have consistently been involved in these in-depth technical discussions as part of the US negotiating team and Secretary Moniz will be joining the team in Geneva to continue these ongoing detailed technical deliberations," an energy department spokesman said.

Iran-P5+1 talks

Iran and the P5+1 countries – Britain, France, China, Russia, the US and Germany – are seeking to seal a high-profile political deal by the end of March and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the removal of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as the major stumbling blocks in the talks.

Iran has so far suspended some of its enrichment program in return for certain sanctions relief.

SF/NN

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