Iran’s Zarif, EU’s Ashton Hold "Useful" Meeting in Vienna
VIENNA (Tasnim) – Iranian foreign minister and top nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday held another meeting in Vienna to iron out differences over how to resolve the Western standoff over Tehran's nuclear energy program.
Ashton coordinates diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the six nations.
Her spokesman, Michael Mann, announced in a post on his Twitter page that the two senior negotiators held a “useful” bilateral meeting in the Austrian capital that lasted 3.5 hours.
He noted that negotiating parties from Iran and the sextet of world powers –Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany- will continue talks on Tehran’s nuclear case in different formats later in the evening.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is also a member of the Iranian negotiating team and the EU foreign policy deputy chief, Helga Schmid, held a meeting in Vienna on Thursday.
Senior diplomats representing Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) have launched a decisive phase of diplomacy since Wednesday to draft a lasting accord, meant to end years of Western standoff over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
This is the fourth round of marathon talks in Vienna after the parties inked a six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear activities in Switzerland on November 24, 2013.
The interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action), which has come into force since January 20, stipulates that over the course of six months, Iran and the six countries will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
