Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has met with EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, as nuclear talks Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany continue efforts to reach a final nuclear deal.
Michael Mann, Ashton’s spokesman, said on his Twitter account on Thursday that the Iranian foreign minister and the EU foreign policy chief had started a new meeting in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Meanwhile, top Iranian nuclear negotiators, including Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, have started trilateral talks with Helga Schmid, a deputy for Ashton, as well as US Under Secretary of State and senior American negotiator Wendy Sherman.
The trilateral discussions are set to focus on drafting a final accord aimed at resolving the Western dispute over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain – plus Germany formally kicked off the sixth round of nuclear talks on July 3 to sort out differences and reach a permanent deal.
On July 8, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French lawmakers that the United States had asked foreign ministers from the six countries to join the nuclear talks in Vienna.
Iran and the six countries sealed an interim deal in Geneva, Switzerland, last November. The agreement came into force in January and expires on July 20, but the deadline can be extended depending on an agreement by all parties involved.
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