FM Advisor Rejects Extension of Iran-G5+1 Nuclear Talks

(FNA)- Senior Advisor to the Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Khorram said on Wednesday that Iran and the six major world powers have narrowed down their differences and do not need to extend the deadline as they now just need to make a final decision.

"At present Iran and the Group 5+1 know all the points of difference and they just need to make a decision, and this does not need any further negotiations," Khorram told FNA on Wednesday.

He said Iran and the six world powers have exchanged all the needed information and presented all their plans for getting our of the current deadlock; "thus there remains no more reason for extending the deadline".

He noted that whenever the two sides decide, the text of the final agreement can be written within three to four weeks. 

Khorram pointed to the recent statements of US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman who blamed Iran for delaying a final deal in the nuclear talks, and said, "The stances of these people is mere propaganda which is a (tactical) tool normally used by the states when they push the negotiations forward." 

He said no convincing time-table for the annulment of all the UN, EU and UN Security Council sanctions against Iran has not yet been presented to the Iranian team and "that's why Iran takes the United States responsible for delay in the conclusion of the nuclear talks".

The senior advisor cautioned that "the Islamic Republic of Iran will not take any move until all sanctions are removed".

Last Wednesday, Iran announced that the country's negotiators and their counterparts in the nuclear talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) have paved over 90% of the path towards a comprehensive deal.

"Given the fact that negotiations have been underway since a year ago, we can say that we have paved over 90% of the path and we are now taking the last steps which are of course important, sensitive and hard," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said in Tehran.

Asked about the Russian officials' remarks that 95% of work has been done for reaching a final agreement between the two sides, she said, "95% or 98% progress are the assessments that politicians state in their remarks and views; yet one can say that an important section of the path has been paved and the remaining part is difficult."

Afkham underlined that all sides are now focused on using the remaining 40 days (before the November 24 deadline) to reach a deal, and added, "Extension of the negotiations is on no one's agenda."

Iran and the six major world powers ended their 8th round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna last Thursday.

The 7th round of the 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.