Iran, EU FMs to hold nuclear talks in Luxemburg

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is set to hold talks with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and his European counterparts from the P5+1 group of countries in Luxemburg in a bid to hammer out a final deal over Tehran's nuclear program.

Zarif is scheduled to sit down with his French, German and British counterparts, Laurent Fabius, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Philip Hammond, in Luxemburg on Monday to discuss the text of a possible comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi, who are in the Austrian capital of Vienna for nuclear negotiations since Wednesday, will join Zarif in the talks with Europeans in Luxemburg.

The two members of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team held talks on Thursday with European Union deputy foreign policy chief, Helga Schmid, who represents the P5+1 countries in Vienna.

However, the director general for political and international security affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Hamid Baeidinejad, will stay in Vienna to proceed with expert-level nuclear talks about the annexes of the possible final agreement.

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany – are seeking to finalize a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by a self-imposed deadline of June 30.

Iran and its negotiating partners have been working on the text of a final agreement since they reached a mutual understanding on the key parameters of a final deal in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

Lifting of arms embargo against Iran

Meanwhile Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that the P5+1 group of countries has so far failed to agree on the issue of lifting the arms embargo against Iran.

"This is one of the main stumbling points within the P5+1. We have not reached understanding on this issue," Ryabkov told reporters.

In a resolution in March 2007, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Iran amid accusations that the country was seeking to create nuclear weapons.

This is while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has in numerous reports verified Iran’s full transparency in its nuclear program and lack of any diversion toward non-peaceful purposes in the country’s declared nuclear material.

The Islamic Republic has time and again emphasized its readiness for more cooperation with the IAEA.