Zarif, also the head of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, made the remarks while addressing a meeting of university students in Tehran.
Hosted by Tehran's Tabatabaei University, the meeting was dubbed the 'Nuclear Diplomacy.'
'We are very close to the framework of a final deal,' Zarif told the audience in his first speech after the Vienna 8 nuclear talks which ended on November 24 in the Austrian capital with an agreement for extending the talks for another seven months (July 1, 2015).