Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi announced that Tehran is due to have bilateral negotiations with the members of the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) before the UN General Assembly meeting late September.

"We are planning talks with other members of the G5+1 since we feel under the current conditions that a series of more detailed bilateral talks are needed between us and other members of the G5+1 before the start of the next round of the negotiations," Araqchi said after ending negotiations with his American counterparts in Geneva on Friday.

Noting that Iran and the world powers will hold a series of bilateral talks before the UN General Assembly meeting which will start on September 16, he expressed the hope that the results of those negotiations would lead to holding another round of multilateral talks between Tehran and the G5+1 on the sidelines of the UN meeting.

"These are ideas that have been raised but they have not been finalized yet," Araqchi said.

Araqchi and another Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Majid Takht Ravanchi, as well as US Undersecretaries of State William Burns and Wendy Sherman held talks on narrowing the gaps between Tehran and Washington in their nuclear dispute on Thursday.

The two sides held two rounds of talks in the morning and afternoon which lasted for five hours.

"It was, I would say, a constructive discussion," US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Last month, Iran and the G5+1 had over two weeks of negotiations in Vienna with no final agreement between the two sides, but they extended their July 20 deadline for a few more months.

During the talks, a senior member of the Iranian team of negotiators stressed that the excessive demands made by the other side are the root cause of the differences between Tehran and the world powers.

At the end of their talks, the two sides agreed to extend the talks till November 24 for brokering a final deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in a joint statement after over two weeks of talks stressed the need for more efforts and time to reach an agreement with the world powers over Tehran's nuclear program.

Zarif and Ashton who presided the negotiating sides, emphasized at the end of Iran-G5+1 negotiations that they had held different sessions in different forms and in a constructive atmosphere to reach a final comprehensive agreement.

Due to certain differences over some fundamental issues the two sides agreed to extend the Joint Plan of Action by November 24, they added.
 

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