Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
The new round of Iran and P5+1 countries nuclear talks started in Vienna at the foreign ministers' deputies level, IRNA reported on Feb.19.
According to the report, Abbas Araqchi, deputy of Iran's foreign minister and Helga Schmid, deputy to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are heading this round of negotiations.
Beside the first round of negotiations held on Feb.18 the representatives of the U.S., Russia and China held separate meeting with Iran's delegation, also the representatives of Iran and the three European countries of Germany, Britain and France held quadrilateral meetings.
The Vienna talks are being held for the purpose of setting the agenda for the talks on the final step as Araqchi has said the two sides will express their views about the issues that they expect to be put on the agenda in a bid to sum up their views and the two sides reach a unified agenda.
A senior State Department official told Trend on Feb.18 that the bilateral talks between Iran and the U.S. were "productive".
Iranian sources told IRNA anonymously on Feb.19 that overall the talks held were "good and hard".
IRNA quoted them as saying, "Every country presented its proposals, but P5+1 members know that for reaching a result it's need to avoid "illogical and non-normative" positions".
Iran and the P5+1 reached a nuclear agreement on Nov. 24. Iran has agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities for six months in return for sanctions relief. Iran and the P5+1 group agreed to implement the agreement starting Jan. 20.
Under the agreement, six major powers agreed to give Iran access to $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if it carries out the deal, which offers sanctions relief in exchange for steps to curb the Iranian nuclear program.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, and is using nuclear energy for medical research instead.
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