Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 14
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
The new round of negotiations on Iran's disputed nuclear program started on Oct.14 in Vienna.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi is helding trilateral nuclear talks with Wendy Sherman, the U.S. State Department's chief nuclear negotiator and EU Political Director Helga Schmid, Iran's state TV IRIB reported.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has also left Tehran to join the nuclear talks.
Before leaving Tehran, he said that resent round of talks between Iran and G5+1 (The U.S., The UK, France, Russia, China + Germany) could pave the way for a final agreement.
The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and the 5+1 group was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly during last month in New York.
The West wants Iran to have single-digit thousands of active centrifuges, meaning it would take Tehran a long time to use them for producing high-level enriched uranium for nuclear weapon. Tehran who has 19,000 centrifuges has rejected reducing the number of active enrichment machines.
Iran and the P5+1 group 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 was extended on July 20 until Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
Zarif, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will discuss the progress of the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and G5+1 group of the world powers this week.