“Should the other side puts aside its previous thoughts and does not seek to employ sanctions as a tool, we will be able to reach the comprehensive agreement as soon as possible,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for American and European Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi said on Monday.
Ravanchi, who is also one of the country's nuclear negotiators, made the comments in a meeting with Political Director of Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wegger Christian Strommen, held in Tehran.
The Norwegian diplomat, who is in Tehran for talks, also met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday.
Strommen had expressed the hope in that meeting that nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) will come to a conclusion as soon as possible and that international and unilateral sanctions will be lifted.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) have been in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
In November 2013, the two sides signed an interim deal –the Joint Plan of Action- in Geneva that took effect on January 20, 2014 and expired six months later. They later extended the deal until November 24, 2014.
After failing to hammer out a lasting accord by the self-imposed November 24 deadline, the parties once again decided to extend the deadline more seven for months.
