FM: Iran, US, EU to Discuss Enrichment, Sanctions in Vienna Talks

(FNA)- High-ranking Iranian, EU and US officials are due to discuss the volume of Iran's enrichment as well as ways and timeline for the removal of the sanctions against Tehran in the new round of talks in Vienna, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced on Tuesday.

"All the negotiations that we have had so far have been sensitive and this round of negotiations can level the path to a final agreement," Zarif said upon arrival in Vienna where he is due to meet his US counterpart John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton within the framework of talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) on Iran's nuclear issue.

"Of course, it will be much unlikely to achieve a deal in these negotiations because the issues which need to be settled are still too many," he stressed.

"As our president has said there is a general understanding over the bases of issues, but these are details like the volume of enrichment, and the manner and the time-table for the removal of the sanctions which are of vital importance and which have been under discussion in the last several rounds of the talks," he added.

Zarif expressed the hope that the world powers would see and accept the realities existing on the regional and international scenes as well as this reality that Iran owns an advanced peaceful nuclear program to reach a solution which will benefit all.

"We will make our utmost efforts to use these days of negotiations in Vienna to settle the problems in its best way," he added.

Zarif, accompanied by his deputies Seyed Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi, arrived in Vienna on Tuesday morning.

Iranian, American and EU negotiators are set to start the fresh round of talks in Vienna on October 14-15.

Araqchi and Takht Ravanchi and US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and Deputy Secretary of State William Burns are due to hold a bilateral meeting in the Austrian capital on Tuesday.

Meantime, Zarif, Kerry and Ashton will hold a trilateral meeting on Wednesday.

The 7th round of talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 was held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting last month.

The two sides held six rounds of negotiations in Vienna to reach a comprehensive deal after they inked an interim agreement in Geneva on November 24.

The Geneva agreement took effect on January 20 and expired six months later on July 20. In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key issues.