Zarif and Ashton met in the Austrian capital of Vienna during a working lunch today to discuss how to hold the final round of talks on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program in the following days.
Diplomats from Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in Vienna to hammer out a final, long-awaited agreement to resolve the West’s decade-old standoff over Iran's civilian nuclear work.
Earlier on Tuesday, Zarif expressed the hope that this round of nuclear negotiations would mark a “national victory” for the Iranian nation and result in the achievement of Iran's objectives.
Tehran and the world powers on November 24, 2013, signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The Geneva deal (the Joint Plan of Action) came into effect in January and expired in July, when the parties decided to extend negotiations until November 24 in the hope of clinching a final, lasting accord.