Iran Nuclear Talks: Deputy-Level Sessions Conclude in Vienna
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Senior Iranian diplomats wrapped up meetings with European Union Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Schmid in Vienna on Sunday, while experts from Iran and six world powers will remain there to proceed with negotiations on drafting a final deal on Tehran's civilian nuclear program.
Top Iranian negotiators and deputies foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi, finished talks with Schmidt after a final four-hour session on Sunday.
The EU coordinates diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, France, US, Britain, and Germany).
The deputy-level talks began on Wednesday and were initially expected to run until Friday, but stretched for two more days.
Araqchi and Takht Ravanchi will return home this evening.
Expert-level talks also kicked off in the Austrian capital on Tuesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry's Director General for the Political and International Affairs Hamid Baeidinejad heads the country's team of experts in the meetings.
The two sides' experts will continue working on the text of the long-awaited nuclear accord on Sunday and Monday.
Iran and the six powers have held several rounds of talks in recent months to hammer out a lasting accord that would end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran's civilian nuclear program.
On April 2, Iran and the sextet reached a framework nuclear agreement in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), until the end of June.
