Baku, Azerbaijan, March 21
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The latest round of the negotiations with the P5+1 over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program was hard and intensive, but useful and helpful, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
Suitable technical and political solutions were found for the issues which already seemed impossible to be solved, Zarif wrote on his Facebook page on March 21.
He further noted that the progress was made due to the efforts, innovation and collaboration of officials and experts of the Islamic Republic's foreign ministry and the country's atomic energy organization.
The Islamic Republic's negotiating team was ready to continue the talks even during the Iranian New Year holidays (started on March 21), however the P5+1 (the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany) required more time for more consultations and coordination, Zarif stated.
He also said that coordination between the P5+1 members in some cases is even more sensitive than the main negotiations due to diversity of the interests and political orientations, as well as personal issues.
Iranian top diplomat added that the Islamic Republic will return to Geneva on March 25 "to finalize the details of the solutions."
Iran and the P5+1 are negotiating to conclude a comprehensive nuclear agreement by July 1. They have agreed to come to a political understanding by late March.
Iran thinks that any comprehensive deal would require the lifting of all sanctions on its economy.
The sides held their latest round of talks in Switzerland from March 15 to March 20.
Iran and the P5+1 signed an interim nuclear deal in November 2013 to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities.
After the sides failed to meet the November 24, 2014 deadline they extended the aforementioned deal.
The US and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon, something that Iran denies.
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