Senior Iranian Negotiator: Over 60% of Progress Made in Drafting Final Deal

(FNA)- Iran's deputy lead negotiator in the nuclear talks with the six world powers, Seyed Abbas Araqchi, said the seven nations have made over 60% progress in drafting the text of a final deal, although wide differences have still remained over the contents of the agreement.

"We have made almost good progress in the text and maybe 60% to 65% of the text has been agreed, but this doesn’t mean that we have made progress in the contents," Araqchi said in Vienna on Saturday.

"We have not yet reached a major agreement on the key content issues," he added.

Araqchi expressed the hope that progress would be made in reaching an understanding over the major content issues during the negotiations between the foreign ministers of Iran and certain members of the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) who are due to come to Vienna in the coming days.

He also underlined Iran's determination to continue the negotiations to restore all its rights, and said, "We won't withdraw from our positions."

Reports said in previous days that US Secretary of State John Kerry, German top diplomat Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius are due to attend the sixth round of talks between Iran and the six major world powers in Austria to discuss the final and permanent agreement over Tehran's nuclear program.

Representatives of Iran and the G5+1 are continuing their talks after 10 days of hectic diplomacy to reach a final agreement over Tehran's nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are still busy with conferring on drafting the final nuclear deal in Vienna.

Also Zarif's deputies Majid Takht Ravanchi and Araqchi have been discussing the text of the comprehensive agreement with EU foreign policy deputy chief Helga Schmidt, US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and other G5+1 senior diplomats in the last ten days in the Austrian capital.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said on Wednesday that representatives of Tehran and the six world powers are now dealing with the most controversial points in their disputes over Iran's nuclear program, and expressed hope that the sextet would adopt a realistic view in the talks.