China hails ‘headway’ in Iran nuclear talks, hopes for deal
China says Iran and the P5+1 group made some progress during the latest round of negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, hoping for the conclusion of a nuclear deal between the parties to the talks as soon as possible.
China believes that the negotiating sides held “intensive, practical and in-depth negotiations” and reached more consensus in the talks, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at her weekly press conference on Tuesday.
The Chinese official said that the two sides demonstrated “sincerity” during the talks despite some differences, adding “the negotiation process has made headway to some extent.”
Hua expressed optimism that Iran and the six countries can come to a comprehensive “mutually-beneficial” agreement over Tehran’s nuclear work as early as possible.
“China hopes that all parties can seize the hard-won historic opportunity, race against time, stick to the existing consensus, thoroughly follow the principle of step-by-step and reciprocity, and make political decisions, so that a package of solutions can be reached,” she said.
Iran Nuclear Talks
Iran and the P5+1 countries - the US, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany – are in talks to secure a final full-blown deal over Tehran’s nuclear work.
Political directors of Iran and the P5+1 countries wrapped up their talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday.
Since an interim deal was agreed in Geneva in November 2013, the negotiating sides have missed two deadlines to ink a final agreement.
Tehran and the six countries now seek to reach a high-level political agreement by March 1 and to confirm the full technical details of the agreement by July 1.
New US Sanctions
The negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program come as a bipartisan group of US senators is pushing a new round of sanctions on Iran.
US President Barack Obama has, however, warned that any new bans would harm Tehran’s nuclear talks, threatening that he will use his veto power to stop any sanctions bills.