Iran, Group 5+1 Likely to Hold Ministerial Meeting on July 5: Diplomat
VIENNA (Tasnim) – A ranking diplomat from the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) said foreign ministers of Iran and the six world powers are likely to hold a gathering on July 5 as part of talks over a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The senior diplomat made the comments in an interview with Tasnim in Vienna on Tuesday.
It came after Iran and the six nations (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) decided to continue diplomatic negotiations for an extra week to nail down details of a final agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, extending a deadline that expired on Tuesday night.
The week-long extension follows days of tight diplomatic meetings at Vienna’s Palais Coburg hotel with the purpose of finalizing the text of an accord that would end more than a decade of standoff over Iran’s nuclear energy program.
On Tuesday, Iran’s lead negotiator and foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, held separate meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano.
Back on April 2, Iran and the six nations reached a framework nuclear agreement in Lausanne, Switzerland, that provides outlines of a final agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
