Iran, P5+1 to resume N-talks in two weeks: Araqchi

A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator says the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group will be held in a European city in less than two weeks.

In an interview with Kyodo news agency on Sunday, Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, who is also Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said that the nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany will resume either in the Austrian capital of Vienna or in the Swiss city of Geneva.

Iran and its negotiating partners -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany -- held their latest round of talks in New York to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear energy program within a November 24 deadline.

Last November, the two sides clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. However, they agreed to extend their talks until November 24 as they remained divided on a number of key issues.

Araqchi said the nuclear talks in New York were “constructive”, although differences on major issues still remain to reach a deal before the deadline.

“We have been able to have a much better understanding in a constructive atmosphere, but there are differences on major issues,” he said.

Araqchi referred to the anti-Iran sanctions and the country’s uranium enrichment centrifuges as the “two main key differences between Iran and the 5+1.”

Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reaffirmed Tehran’s determination to seize the existing opportunity till the expiration of Iran’s interim nuclear deal in November and noted that the existing issues are not too complicated to be resolved.