Iran, major powers to resume nuclear talks in early September: Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Iran and the major powers will resume the talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in early September. 
 
“The next round of talks will be in early September, but no decision has been made about the venue (for the negotiations),” Zarif said in an interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) broadcast live on Tuesday night. 
 
Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) failed to meet a self-imposed July 20 deadline to reach a comprehensive deal to resolve the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program. After about three weeks of talks in Vienna, Iran and the major powers announced early on Saturday they had agreed to extend the negotiations on a final deal for four months until November 24.     
 
Zarif said the process of nuclear talks with the major powers which resumed last year has been beneficial for Iran.
 
“No new sanctions have been imposed on Iran over the past year, and the large presence of businessmen in Iran indicates the fact that a new atmosphere has been created in the country,” he said.
 
After Iran and the major powers clinched an interim nuclear deal last November in Geneva, under which Iran agreed to scale down parts of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited sanctions, a number of foreign business delegations visited Iran to negotiate trade deals with Iranian companies. 
 
The Geneva deal was due to expire on July 20, but under the terms of the extension of the nuclear talks, Iran and major powers agreed to uphold their commitments under the accord until November 24. 
 
Zarif also said, “No one any longer says that Iran must suspend uranium enrichment, but they talk about the number of centrifuges… or with regard to the Arak reactor, they talk about a kind of change in its design and not about its closure.” 
 
“We no longer talk to prevent the imposition of new sanctions, but our discussions are about the lifting of sanctions,” he stated. 
 
Elsewhere in his remarks, the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator said that Iran is ready to take some confidence-building measures for a specified period of time to prove that it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.