Speaking to reporters on Thursday night before departing for Germany, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he will begin nuclear talks Friday afternoon immediately after arriving in Munich.
“I am planned to hold extensive bilateral talks with all parties in the Munich conference,” Zarif said.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Zarif, however, noted that China will not dispatch its foreign minister to Munich and Russia has still not made a decision on the level of its diplomatic delegation.
Asked about the possibility of any deal in the upcoming round of negotiations, the Iranian minister said, “It is not clear; because the whole parties are not present to enable us strike a nuclear agreement, but we can push forward the mission to some extent.”
In the meantime, AP has quoted a US State Department official as saying that Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Zarif in Munich on Saturday to discuss the ongoing nuclear negotiations.
In the latest round of negotiations, deputy foreign ministers from Iran and the European members of the G5+1 held a one-day round of talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on January 29.
Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.