“If the other side shows goodwill and pays more attention to the initiatives and options [offered] by the Islamic Republic of Iran, we could wrap up the talks before the date”, said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi on Sunday.
Araqchi pointed to the sticking points in the talks on Iran’s civilian nuclear work, adding that Tehran and the six states – Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – will look into proposed initiatives to help narrow their differences in the next round of their negotiations.
The Iranian official also rejected certain media speculations about the ongoing nuclear discussions, stressing that Tehran and its negotiating partners have not reached any agreement on the outstanding issues so far.
Iran and the six powers are in talks to work out a final deal aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran’s nuclear energy program as a November 24 deadline approaches.
Last year, the two sides clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. However, they agreed to extend their talks until November 24 as they remained divided on a number of key issues.
Sources close to the Iranian negotiating team say the main stumbling block in the way of resolving Western disputes over Iran’s nuclear issue remains to be the removal of all sanctions, and not the number of centrifuges or the level of uranium enrichment.
Tehran wants sanctions entirely lifted while Washington, under pressure from the pro-Israeli lobby, insists that at least the UN-imposed bans against Iran should remain in place.
