Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Lebanese minister referred to the recent talks between Iran and the Group 5+1(the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) over Tehran's nuclear program held in the Swiss city of Geneva, and praised Iran for its admirable stand to vindicate its legitimate rights of making use of nuclear energy.
He further added that Iran was the winner of the Geneva talks as powerfully defended its peaceful nuclear rights.
Qanso pointed out that the western governments have got the belief that the economic sanctions on Iran are arbitrary and unfair.
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in a joint statement issued at the end of three days of talks in Geneva hailed progress in the negotiations between Iran and the six world powers, and said they would convene in the same venue in less than 10 days to remove the existing differences.
" We have just come from a long meeting this evening with the E3+3 ministers, after three days of intense and constructive discussions," the two top diplomats said in the statement.
"A lot of concrete progress has been achieved but some differences remain," they added.
Zarif and Ashton thanked the ministers who came and joined them as well as their Swiss and UN hosts.
"Minister Zarif and I will reconvene together with the Iranian negotiating team and the E3+3 political directors here on the 20th of November," the statement concluded.
Iran and the Group 5+1 had three days of intensive talks in Geneva from November 7 to November 9. The negotiations even extended to the early hours of Sunday.
The first session of the talks between Iran and the world powers started in Geneva on Thursday at 11:00 (local time) and ended after almost an hour.
On Saturday, Zarif underlined that Iran and the six world powers are close to striking a deal over Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West and should now start writing the agreement.
“We have now come to the phase of writing the agreement and we have also agreed on certain issues, but it is not yet clear if we can achieve the result tonight,” Zarif said in Geneva and after leaving the second trilateral meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and US Secretary of State John Kerry for a short break.
Top foreign policy officials of Iran, EU and the US ended a trilateral meeting in Geneva Saturday evening as the possibility for a nuclear deal is now even more in sight.
The meeting started at 13:30 and ended at 19:00. The three top diplomats had a short break in between. During the break, Zarif and Ashton had a trilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who arrived in Geneva earlier today.
Zarif, Ashton and Kerry held their second trilateral meeting to discuss the contents of a draft agreement which includes confidence-building measures to end more than a decade-long nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.
The Iranian foreign minister said debates continue after the break, and added, “Now we have to work on the details."
"There are some differences over certain issues," he said about the views of Iran and the six world powers, adding that there are some internal differences among the views of the sextet as well.
Meantime, Zarif underlined that "we have achieved agreements on some issues".
"We have to work on all these issues," he said, and stressed, "Of course, there is progress" in the talks.
Zarif, Ashton and Kerry held their first round of talks at Ashton’s office at the EU building of the UN offices at 18:30 (local time) on Friday which lasted for about five hours.
Prior to the second trilateral meeting today, Zarif also had quadrilateral talks with Ashton and his German and French counterparts.
Zarif's Deputy Majid Takht Ravanchi, who is also a senior member of the Iranian team of negotiators, told reporters in Geneva Friday afternoon that the draft agreement has been prepared and would go under debate by the three top diplomats in their trilateral meeting in Geneva.
“The text of the draft agreement has been prepared and initial negotiations (over it) will take place in a trilateral meeting among Zarif, Kerry and Ashton,” Takht Ravanchi said.
On Friday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and Iran’s senior negotiator in talks with the six powers Seyed Abbas Araqchi said the much expected agreement over the settlement of Iran-West nuclear standoff will not include a stop of Iran's enrichment activities, although he said size and form of Iran's enrichment could be touched in the final deal.
As expectations are high for the attainment of a deal between Iran and the six world powers, Araqchi said that the text of the expected agreement will include all the three sections of Iran’s proposed plan wherein the final goal and the elements of the first and last steps will be clearly mentioned, including the confidence-building measures.
“Once an agreement is reached on the text of the deal, the first step will begin, and in case the text of a final statement is finalized, Zarif and Ashton will hold a joint press conference," he added.
Araqchi underlined that the final statement, which will be on the basis of the agreement, will include confidence-building measures by the two sides.
“Enrichment is among the Iranian nation’s principles and basic rights, and Iran will not give up its rights, but we are ready to negotiate over the size, form and dimensions of enrichment,” he added.
He said since most sanctions on Iran have been imposed by the US, “US Secretary of State John Kerry's presence in the talks was necessary for a final deal".
Araqchi, who was speaking to reporters after a second meeting between Zarif and Ashton in Geneva on Friday, explained that the Zarif-Ashton meeting lasted one hour and the two sides discussed continuation of talks, specially at experts level, and how to approach an agreement on the final text of a deal.
