Nuclear talks moving slowly but well, Iran says
Tehran’s top negotiator Abbas Araqchi claims world powers have made clarifications on lifting sanctions, without elaborating
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Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said Friday that the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 world powers were slowly progressing towards signing a comprehensive agreement ahead of the June 30 deadline for the atomic deal.
“The progress is good… We are at preliminary stages and the pace is slow but it is good,” Iranian state television quoted negotiator Abbas Araghchi as saying, according to Reuters.
“The Europeans and Americans made good clarifications about lifting of the sanctions,” he added.
Iran and the major powers held talks Thursday and Friday ahead of a final deal that would make any attempt by Tehran to produce a nuclear weapon extremely difficult and easily detectable. Meeting in Vienna, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany want to turn a framework accord reached in Switzerland on April 2 into a full agreement by June 30.
Iran, which denies seeking the bomb, is set to scale down its nuclear program for 10 to 15 years or more, depending on the area of activity, and allow closer UN inspections.
The deal, if it can be finalized and made to work, could put an end to a 12-year-old crisis and potentially pave the way for a thawing of US-Iranian ties, although this makes other countries in the Middle East uneasy.
US Republicans and Israel fear the mooted accord will be too weak and that when its provisions expire — at the deal’s “sunset” — Iran will again be on the threshold of getting the bomb.
The talks involved senior EU diplomat Helga Schmid, representing the P5+1 group, as well as experts from all six powers and Tehran. Negotiations are set to resume next week.
AFP contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.