Iran Nuclear Talks Resume in Austrian Capital

Negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 group of countries start a new round of talks on drafting the text of a final deal over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi as well as top EU envoy Helga Schmid kicked off the talks in the Austrian city of Vienna on Tuesday. 

Deputy foreign ministers and political directors from the P5+1 group will also join the talks aimed at hammering out a final deal on May 15.

Iran and the P5+1 countries are seeking to finalize a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by the end of June. The two sides reached a mutual understanding in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 2.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran will not cave in to excessive demands by the opposite side in the course of the talks, stressing that the parameters agreed upon by the two sides in Lausanne constitute the basis for drafting a final nuclear deal.

 “Iran will brook no excessive demands. The agreed parameters are those confirmed by the two sides in Lausanne and these parameters need to be stipulated in a written agreement by Iran and the P5+1,” Zarif said at a joint press conference with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

The senior Iranian diplomat also downplayed a recent US Senate bill that would allow Congress to review any nuclear deal with Iran, saying Washington is responsible for implementing any final nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Zarif said the US administration must not allow the bill to affect the implementation of a possible final nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group.

 Iran never backs down on demand for bans removal, Says Boroujerdi

On the other hand, a senior Iranian lawmaker says the Islamic Republic will never change its position on the need for the simultaneous removal of all anti-Iran sanctions imposed over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Monday that Iran also sticks to its position on defending national interests and continuing its peaceful nuclear activities.

 “The [Islamic] establishment will not retreat an iota from this fundamental principle,” the Iranian legislator pointed out.

He further stressed the importance of acting vigilantly at the current juncture of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries to serve the Iranian nation’s interests.

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — reached a mutual understanding on the parameters of a comprehensive agreement over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 2.

The two sides are set to start a new round of expert-level talks in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday. Representatives of Iran and the six-party nations held their latest round of three-day talks in Vienna in April in a bid to draft the text of a final agreement based on the mutual understanding reached in Lausanne.

Iran and the P5+1 group have agreed to finalize a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by the end of June.

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