A major nuclear deal between world powers and Iran can still be achieved by next month as planned, Tehran said Wednesday as lack of progress recently raised fears the talks had hit a wall. Iran and the so-called P5+1 - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany - are trying to draft a potentially historic nuclear agreement by July 20. But the latest round of negotiations in mid-May ended with both sides deploring that no "tangible progress" had been made.
"We believe that we can meet the deadline set out in the Geneva agreement and we work toward that aim," Iran's ambassador to the UN atomic watchdog IAEA, Reza Najafi, said Wednesday in Vienna. "We continue to negotiate in good faith with our counterparts... (to reach) a long-term comprehensive solution that would be advantageous to both sides," he told journalists. Iran and the six world powers were widely expected to start drafting an agreement at their last meeting in Vienna, but came away speaking of "huge" gaps between their positions.
On Wednesday, experts from both sides began meeting again in Vienna in preparation for the next round of talks on June 16-20. "We believe there is a good atmosphere in the meeting and that we can elaborate and perhaps find ways to resolve the concerns of both sides," Najafi said. Earlier, US delegate Joseph Macmanus had also told journalists that talks were continuing with the July 20 deadline in mind. The July 20 deadline can in theory be extended, but US President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani could struggle to keep sceptical and impatient hard-liners from their respective countries at bay.
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