Iran nuclear talks going well: official

Atomic Energy Agency of Iran Director Ali Akbar Salehi has said that the talks between Iran and the major powers over Tehran’s nuclear program are going well. 
 
“The process of the negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) is going well and there is no cause for concern,” Salehi said in an interview with ISNA on Sunday. 
 
Iran and the 5+1 group are engaged in a process of talks on the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program. The negotiating partners have recently set a new deadline of November 24 to hammer out a comprehensive nuclear deal to resolve the dispute, which has dragged on for more than a decade.  
 
Commenting on U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman’s recent remarks about the Arak heavy-water reactor and the Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which are among the most important sticking points in the talks, Salehi said that these issues will be discussed during future discussions, adding that it is soon to express views in this regard. 
 
According to the New York Times, at a congressional hearing in late July, Sherman, who is the lead U.S. negotiator, made the case that the four-month-long extension in negotiations agreed to by the U.S. administration, along with modest additional sanctions relief, were warranted “because we have seen significant progress in the negotiating room.” 
 
Specifically, she said the progress had been made in discussions about redesigning a plutonium reactor so that it would not produce weapons-grade fuel and converting Iran’s deep-underground uranium enrichment site to another purpose.