Mohammad Javad Zarif and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov held a meeting in Dushanbe on Friday on the sidelines of the 14th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The course of nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members) was the main topic of discussion.
The top diplomats also exchanged views on the status of expert-level talks among the negotiators engaged in the nuclear talks, with an eye to a forthcoming round of negotiations, slated for September 18 in New York.
Iran and the sextet (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are currently in talks to work out a lasting accord aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear activities.
Last November, the two sides signed an interim deal in Geneva, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later on July 20. In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24 after they failed to reach common ground on a number of key issues.