Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iranian deputy foreign minister for Legal and International Affairs, Abbas Araqchi left Brussels for France to meet senior French officials.
Araqchi, who is Iran's top nuclear negotiator, is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with French representative to the P5+1, Nicolas de Rivière, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Sept. 2.
Araqchi is accompanying Foreign Minsiter Mohammad Javad Zarif in his ongoing EU tour.
The foreign minister arrived in Brussels on Sept. 1 and held talks with the outgoing EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council as well as senior officials of the European Parliament and his Belgian counterpart.
Zarif is accompanied by a team of senior foreign ministry diplomats including Araqchi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Euro-American Affairs Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and the Ministry's Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham.
Zarif left Brussels for Luxembourg on Sept. 2 for one-day trip to hold talks with senior officials of the European country.
He is scheduled to visit Italy and meet with Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini, who was picked by European leaders to become the next EU foreign policy chief.
Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprised of China, France, Russia, Britain, the U.S., plus Germany) sealed an interim deal for a six-month period in Geneva on November 23, 2013.
Under the deal, dubbed the Geneva Joint Plan of Action, the six countries undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities.
The deal took effect on Jan. 20 and expired on July 20. However the two sides agreed to extend their talks for four months until Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.