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US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif have held bilateral talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne after a March 31 deadline for reaching a common understanding over sticking points has been extended, an American official says.
The meeting was held on Wednesday, the seventh day of intense talks between Iran and the P5+1 – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – aimed at laying the groundwork for a potentially historic agreement to resolve the Western dispute over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
The two sides have set July 1 as the final deadline for a comprehensive agreement.
As the talks resumed on Wednesday in Lausanne, negotiators said that a framework understanding was potentially within reach but there was still much to work out.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond talks on his mobile as he stands on the terrace of the hotel Bean Rivage Palace Hotel during Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, March 31, 2015. (AFP photo)“Fingers crossed, and we hope to get there during the course of the day,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters.
“I think we have a broad framework of understanding, but there are still some key issues that have to be worked through,” Hammond added. “Some of them are quite detailed and technical, so there is still quite a lot of work to do; but we are on it now and we’ll keep going at it.”
Early on Wednesday, Zarif described the talks as “very good” and hoped that the parties attending the negotiations could arrive at the expected understanding on Wednesday.
"For the majority of issues, solutions have been completely found," he said.
Speaking on Tuesday night, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, "We are making progress. But it's complicated, it's long and difficult. And I'm afraid that we may be going through the night.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (C) walks with others during a break in a meeting with P5+1 representatives seeking to reach a nuclear deal with Iran at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel, on March 31, 2015 in Lausanne. (AFP photo)A senior member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team has also said Tehran and the P5+1 had reached an agreement on the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions, but minor issues still remained.
Hamid Baeidinejad, who is the director general for political and international security affairs at Iran's Foreign Ministry, told the Press TV correspondent in Lausanne that Tehran and the six states were working to minimize the difference on the remaining minor issues regarding the bans.
"Sanctions have many aspects, there are unilateral sanctions, US sanctions, EU sanctions, UNSC sanctions... I should say that many of these aspects have been resolved, but still there are some limited areas that also need to be resolved, and we are now concentrating on those remaining technical aspects with regard to the sanctions,” he said.
GJH/GJH
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Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1GLXxiI
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