Report: Sextet FMs to Enter Iran Nuclear Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Foreign ministers from the six-power group negotiating a final nuclear agreement with Iran are expected to join ongoing negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna later this week, said Western diplomats.
The decision to bring ministers into comes a week into what was supposed to be the final round of negotiations, with Western diplomats saying progress has been painfully slow.
While no official plans have been announced, three diplomats said foreign ministers could arrive in Vienna as early as Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is currently in Asia, could come to Vienna over the weekend, two officials said.
One official said ministers were unlikely to stay en bloc through the next 11 days but would likely come and go.
"Arrival of higher level politicians is a wise strategy. At best, it can salvage the talks and at worst, it obviates the blame that failure was because of their lack of effort," said Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst at Crisis Group, an international conflict resolution organization. "There is no guarantee that the foreign ministers' arrival could help break the deadlock, but it can't hurt either."
Iran, which says its nuclear program is for purely civilian, peaceful purposes, is negotiating with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the US, the U.K., France, China and Russia—plus Germany.
Delegates from Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) have launched the 6th round of nuclear talks in the Austrian capital in a bid to hammer out a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear case.
This round of talks, coordinated by the European Union, started on July 2 and is expected to run until at least July 15.
The two sides have now less than two weeks to clinch a deal by their self-imposed deadline that expires on July 20.
Iran and the G5+1 (alternatively known as P5+1 or E3+3) on November 24, 2013, clinched an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The breakthrough agreement (the Joint Plan of Action), which has come into effect 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 Iran.
