Tehran, May 12 (IANS) It is possible for Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers to secure a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme even before the July 1 deadline, a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday.
There were still many gaps and disagreements between the two sides, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi told Press TV upon his arrival in the Austrian capital city of Vienna for the continuation of talks with world powers.
The negotiators were trying to reach “a single agreed text”, Araqchi said, adding, “We think that we can do that even before the deadline.”
Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the US, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany — were set to start a new round of talks in Vienna on Tuesday at deputy and expert levels in order to narrow gaps on the outstanding issues.
In response to a question about the previous round of negotiations in New York, Araqchi said: “What we achieved in New York was the first draft of the whole package.”
“Now, we have a written text, although we still have lots of brackets, which represent the differences we have,” he added.
He further noted that the talks in Vienna were aimed at reducing the “number of brackets” and “cleaning” the text as much as possible.
The high-ranking Iranian official also said one of the most significant issues under discussion in Vienna would be the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme.
“All economic and financial sanctions should be terminated on the day that we start to implement the final deal,” Araqchi said, noting that there would be no “phased” sanctions removal.
On May 7, experts from Iran and the P5+1 group ended their latest round of talks in New York, which were held on the sidelines of the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the NPT. Furthermore, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held important talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.
Iran and the P5+1 group reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear programme in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.
They agreed to finalise a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme by the end of June.