Tehran, Iran, Oct. 19
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi said that Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries will hold expert level talks in Austrian city of Vienna on October 22-23.
Araqchi said that progress has been made during the recent round of talks, but disagreements remain over key issues, Iran's ISNA News Agency reported October 19.
"We have achieved progress in certain details but have not agreed upon crucial issues. Of course a great deal of work has been done and different proposals have been reviewed and discussed. We hope to achieve a result but there's yet a long way to go," he said.
He went on to note that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the outgoing EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, and U.S Secretary of State John Kerry will most likely hold another trilateral meeting in two weeks time.
The two sides are not interested in extending the 24-November deadline set for striking a final and comprehensive deal, Araqchi said.
Iran and P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprising of China, France, Russia, Britain, the U.S Plus Germany) sealed an interim deal in Geneva on November 24 to pave the way for the full resolution of the West's decade-old dispute with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program, Press TV reported.
The Geneva deal took effect on January 20 and expired on July 20. However the two sides agreed to extend their talks for four months till Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
In exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the U.S and its allies agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran.