Iranian Top Negotiator: 6th Round of Nuclear Talks Due on July 2-20

Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi told Fars News Agency that Iran’s Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif will lead the Iranian delegation and the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton will represent the six world powers in the fresh round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

If an agreement is reached the foreign ministers of the six world powers would gather for a meeting in Vienna, said Araqchi.

During the fifth round of negotiations in Vienna starting on June 17, the two sides started the process of drafting of the final nuclear agreement. At the end of the four-day talks chief negotiator Zarif had announced that there were agreements on some parts of the draft, but at the same time differences remained over a number of issues.

“It is probable that the introduction of the agreement, just like the main text, has many brackets which could express two different views,” told Zarif, adding that the final draft has more brackets than words.

He further termed such ambiguities as “very natural”, noting that the two sides have not come to a conclusion over many points. Zarif criticized the Western powers for being far from realism in some cases.

The chief negotiator also expressed the hope that the international community takes this exceptional opportunity to create a new era of relations and to end an “unnecessary crisis”.

Iran and the six world powers inked an interim deal on Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva last November, which came into force on January 20. The interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action) stipulates that over the course of six months (July 20), the parties will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on the Islamic Republic.