Nuclear Deal Possible If It Includes Removal of All Sanctions: Zarif

“An agreement is possible if two issues, namely the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and the total removal of (anti-Iran) sanctions are included in the final text,” Zarif said Tuesday in a joint press conference with Henry Oryem Okello, acting foreign minister of Uganda.

He underlined that Tehran’s nuclear activity is peaceful and that developing nuclear energy is Iran’s inalienable right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

In the latest round of negotiations, deputy foreign ministers from Iran and the European members of the G5+1 held a one-day round of talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Thursday.

Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.

Elsewhere in his remarks at the press conference, Zarif called for expansion of cooperation between Iran and African countries, including Uganda.

Henry Oryem Okello, for his part, highlighted the good relations between Tehran and Kampala and said bilateral ties should develop in all areas.

He also hoped that the outcome of Iran-G5+1 nuclear talks will be in the interest of the two sides.

Zarif, heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, started a tour of Africa on Sunday. Earlier as his first destination, he paid a visit to Kenya and held a meeting with the country’s foreign minister.

He is scheduled to visit Burundi and Tanzania after Uganda. He will hold talks with his counterparts and other top-ranking officials of the countries to review issues of mutual interest, as well as regional and international issues.