Iran, Sextet to Resume Expert-Level Talks before New Year

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi, who is also one of the country's nuclear negotiators, announced on Friday that experts representing Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain -- plus Germany are scheduled to resume their talks that had been suspended for Christmas as early as next Monday.

The expert-level talks will continue in Switzerland on December 30, with the aim of finding ways of putting into practice the nuclear deal signed between the two sides in November, Araqchi said.

Earlier on December 22, Araqchi said the post-Christmas talks are likely to be continued at a higher level, possibly among deputies foreign minister.

“There is a possibility that the next round of talks might start at the level of deputies (foreign) minister, or at least (at the level of) me and Lady Schmid, so that a number of issues that require political decision-making and conclusion could be decided on in that same meeting,” he said at the time.

Senior experts representing Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as P5+1 and E3+3) wrapped up four days of expert-level talks on December 22, aiming to find ways of putting into practice the nuclear deal reached in November.

During a telephone conversation later in that day, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the six nations, decided to suspend the expert-level talks on implementing the November nuclear deal until after Christmas.

Also in separate remarks, Zarif announced that the nuclear negotiations with the six world powers were moving forward slowly.

He had also said Tehran’s expert-level nuclear talks with the representatives of the six countries are not easy, adding, “Agreement must be reached on details and minutiae in these (expert-level) talks. The process is moving forward slowly.”

During the four-day talks in Geneva, Hamid Baeedinejad, the director general for political and international affairs at Iran’s foreign ministry, led the Iranian delegation made up of nuclear experts and experts on the banking, transport and oil sector sanctions.

And Stephen Clement, who is an aide to the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, headed the opposite negotiating team which was made up of technical experts from the six countries.