Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Thursday that good progress has been made in lifting sanctions as a result of talks in Vienna in recent days, Trend reports citing IRNA.
On the threshold of a short recess in Vienna talks because of the New Year's holiday, Bagheri Kani told the Iranian reporters that in the last few days when the eighth round of talks has begun, the main focus of the negotiations was on the issue of lifting sanctions.
He added that the two sides held talks and made interactions in various fields, including several meetings on the issue of verification, both with the coordinator of the Joint Commission and the European sides.
In the fields of lifting sanctions, so-called correspondence between the two sides was carried out and relatively good progress was made in the first few days of the eighth round in Vienna, Bagheri Kani highlighted.
He expressed hope that after a few days of recess due to the end-of-year holidays, more serious work on the lifting of sanctions will be pursued by different parties.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani left Vienna for Tehran after meeting with the European troika (representatives of the three parties to the JCPOA) and Enrique Mora, EU foreign policy chief.
Earlier, Bagheri Kani met and held talks with Mora and the European troika (representatives of the three parties to the JCPOA) in diplomatic Vienna talks.
The ongoing round of talks – the eighth round – was originally set to be held after the New Year holiday, but the teams decided to reconvene between the two holidays as an indication of seriousness.
In the meantime, some media have attempted to keep up with their deviated narrative of the talks in the Austrian capital, reporting that negotiations have come to no result and the teams were going to put an end to the talks.
Meanwhile, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Monday that reaching an agreement on effective removal of sanctions against Iran is the key to the success of the eighth round of talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Almost all representatives of the participant countries had underscored the priority of removing the illegal sanctions against Iran, Bagheri Kani told Iranian reporters, referring to the meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission on Monday evening in the Austrian capital.
It was agreed that the removal of sanctions be put on the agenda in experts meetings and the joint meetings between Iran and the P4+1, he added.
The Iranian top negotiator also said that the delegations have agreed to consider in the issue of sanctions removal the two main deliberations of Iran, i.e. verification of sanctions removal and assurances for that.