Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 6
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi called the recent bilateral nuclear talks with the U.S. "good" and "useful", Fars news agency reported Sept. 6.
The Iranian top nuclear negotiator did not give any further details on the issue.
Bilateral talks between Iran and the U.S. over the Islamic Republic's nuclear case held in the past two days in Geneva, Switzerland totalled 20 hours. Iranian and the U.S. representatives had 12 hours of political talks and eight hours of expert talks during these days.
Araqchi and Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi were heading Iranian delegation while the U.S. delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Under Secretary of State in Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.
Iran's expert team was headed by director general for political and international security affairs of Iran's Foreign Ministry Hamid Baeidinejad.
Araqchi expressed hope that the negotiations would help to resolve disputes over Iran's nuclear program.
The top diplomat also went on to add that "there is still a distance between the parties to solve the disputes."
The bilateral talks between Iran and the U.S. were the second one after Vienna 6 negotiations.
The negotiations between Tehran and Washington took place within the framework of bilateral talks with the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprised of China, France, Russia, Britain, the U.S., plus Germany).
Iran and three European countries - Germany, Britain and France are due to hold bilateral talks in Vienna on Sept. 11, 2014.
Iran and the P5+1 sealed an interim deal for a six-month period in Geneva on Nov. 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, 2014 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.