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Zarif, Kerry hold talks ahead of deadline

Nuclear Program Materials 12 July 2015 23:51 (UTC +04:00)
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have held crucial talks ahead of the Monday deadline for the negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program
Zarif, Kerry hold talks ahead of deadline

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have held crucial talks ahead of the Monday deadline for the negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, Press TV reported.

The top Iranian and US diplomats held a one-on-one meeting in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Sunday as hopes grew that an agreement will finally be in sight.

No talks extension: Zarif

Speaking after the meeting with his US counterpart, Zarif said there is no plan to extend the talks.

He added that the nuclear negotiators of Iran and the P5+1 countries have "still got work tomorrow."

"No extension, we will finish hopefully. We need some more time. We need to do some more work," the Iranian foreign minister said.

The Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, held several rounds of talks on Sunday with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and Robert Maley of the US National Security Council on the text of a final deal and its annexes.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany have been holding intensive talks over the past 16 days in the Austrian capital to iron out the remaining differences and nail down a landmark deal on Tehran's nuclear program.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov returned to Vienna on Sunday. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano also went to the Palais Coburg Hotel in Vienna and held a short meeting with head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond left the Vienna talks on Sunday but is expected to return Monday morning.

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