Ashton’s Spokesman Stresses Progress in Talks with Iran

(FNA)- A spokesman of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Thursday night that the talks between the six world powers and Iran are making progress.

"We are making progress in the talks," Michael Mann told reporters after a hectic day of diplomacy between Iran and the six world powers (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in Geneva on Thursday.

"Catherine Ashton will meet with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif Friday morning in a bid to have more time for resolving some issues," he said.

Mann also pointed out that the EU foreign policy chief, who presides over the delegations of the world powers in talks with Iran, is due to have a breakfast meeting with the Group 5+1 negotiators to finalize a view for her later meeting with Zarif.

Earlier this evening, Iran's senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi told FNA that Iran and the six world powers are likely to draft an agreement on Friday to start resolving their decade-long nuclear standoff.

"We are trying to start compiling the text of an understanding tomorrow," Araqchi, who is also an Iranian deputy foreign minister, told FNA in Geneva on Thursday evening.

"Compiling a written text is a time-consuming, lengthy and hard process and a consensus is needed for each and every word of it," he added.

Araqchi said tomorrow will be the peak of the talks, adding that more bilateral and multilateral meetings are perceived for Friday.

His remarks came after the negotiating teams of Iran and the six world powers (Russia, China, the US, France and Britain plus Germany) had a 45-minute session of talks in Geneva Thursday morning followed by a quadrilateral meeting between the Iranian delegation and their German, French and British counterparts, and several more bilateral meetings between the Iranian negotiators and their Russian, Chinese and American counterparts.

Araqchi described the sideline-meetings as "very good" and "useful", but said, "It is still too early to have an assessment. But, I personally have more hopes now, and am more optimistic than this morning."

"Iran's talks with the three European countries were very useful and the bilateral talks, including the ones with the US, Russia and China, were good too," he continued.

Araqchi said he is also scheduled to hold a meeting with a Japanese foreign ministry director-general, but did not mention his name or post.

He also said that the final meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton along with a few experts from the two sides which was due to be held at 6pm (Geneva time) to conclude the results is likely to postponed to Friday due to the very busy schedule today.

Earlier today, the senior Iranian negotiator had expressed the hope that the two sides could agree on the text of an agreement, and said, “Iran’s goal is endorsement of an agreement between the two sides and the other side also has the same view.”

“The first session of the new round of negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 was held and we reviewed the last Geneva meeting (held on October 15 and 16) and the G5+1 announced that they have accepted Iran’s proposed framework,” Araqchi told Iranian reporters after the end of the first session of the talks between the two sides in Geneva on Thursday.

Araqchi said all the diplomats attending the today talks believed that the two-day experts meeting held between the two sides in Vienna on October 30 and 31 to discuss the details of Iran's new proposal for soothing the standoff with the West was “enlightening” and provided good information.

“They (the two sides) are due to start negotiations on the contents and talk about the details. The first step is highly important since we will enter a new atmosphere of cooperation. The last step is also important since it shows where we will reach,” he added after the morning session.

Araqchi said that the representatives of Iran and the G5+1 would discuss the three steps proposed by Tehran in the afternoon.

He also told reporters that there will be more talks between Iran and the six world powers in coming weeks, adding that Geneva will likely be the host to those talks as well.

Asked about the media reports about the suspension of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program for 6 months, Araqchi said, “Enrichment is important to us and is our redline.”

Meantime, the Iranian Foreign Minister also said he is optimistic about striking a deal with the world powers in the current talks between the two sides in Geneva.

“If all parties try, we could reach an agreement in the negotiations in Geneva,” Zarif told reporters in Geneva.

Zarif further expressed the hope that the world powers would enter the negotiations with “seriousness,” saying, “We expect serious negotiations and (believe that) it is possible to reach a deal.”

The Iranian foreign minister also described his working breakfast meeting Thursday morning with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton as “good”. Ashton represents the G5+1 in the talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

Also, Mann had announced Thursday afternoon that Iran and the six world powers are holding the most serious part of their talks to settle the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“The negotiations are highly complicated and have reached a serious stage but we cannot discuss the details since we want to focus on the contents,” Mann told reporters in a press conference after the start of the first round of talks between Iran and the world powers in Geneva on Thursday.

He described as good the meetings held between the two sides since yesterday, including a breakfast meeting held between Zarif and Ashton, to confer on the latest developments in the talks between Tehran and the G5+1.

The negotiations today are the second two-day meetings among the seven states after Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani ascended to power in June.

The last meeting of the seven countries was in Geneva and lasted for two days on October 15 and 16. Both Tehran and the delegations of the G5+1 voiced satisfaction in the outcomes of the first Geneva meeting and sent their experts to two days of talks in Vienna on October 30 and 31 to discuss details of Iran's new proposal for soothing the crisis.

Iran and the six world powers agreed in their third session of talks on October 15 to follow up on the nuclear negotiations on November 7 and 8.

Following the first session of the talks today, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Reuters that "the talks went well".

"I'm hopeful that we can move forward. We are making progress, but it's tough," he added.