“It will be surely held before the New Year, but not in Vienna,” ITAR-TASS quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.
“The 20th is already late, and so, it will be before December 20. It will be decided in the next few days,” Ryabkov said.
He aslo said that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini plans to participate personally in talks between the Sextet mediators and Iran at the level of ministers.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) wrapped up seven days of intensive nuclear talks in Vienna on November 24 without securing a long-awaited comprehensive deal.
They decided to extend talks on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program for seven more months.
The latest round of negotiations were held ahead of the self-imposed deadline of November 24.
On November 24, 2013, Iran and the G5+1 (alternatively known as the P5+1 or E3+3) 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 deal that would end a decade of impasse over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.