Vienna, July 11 (IANS) Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have resumed talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in a bid to iron out the remaining disagreements over a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The top Iranian and US diplomats met as talks entered their 15th straight day in Vienna on Saturday, reports Press TV.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman were also present at the meeting on Saturday as the negotiating parties agreed to set a new deadline of Monday for the potential landmark nuclear deal.
Iran and six world powers had originally hoped to come up with a comprehensive deal by June 30.
The US secretary of state held a meeting earlier on Saturday with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who returned to the Austrian capital of Vienna on Friday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also came back to Vienna on Saturday to rejoin the nuclear negotiations.
Zarif told Press TV on Friday that the last ditch negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 group of world powers — the US, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany — will continue through the weekend.
“We’re making progress. It seems we are staying here for the weekend. We’re working,” he said, adding, “We’re not there yet”.
Zarif reiterated, “We don’t have any (deadline), we want a good agreement”.
Kerry also told reporters on Friday that progress has been made in intense negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group.
“I think we have resolved some of the things that were outstanding and we’ve made some progress,” the top US diplomat said, praising the “constructive” atmosphere.