Zarif arrives in Muscat for trilateral nuclear talks

Iranian foreign minister who heads Iran’s nuclear negotiating team arrived in Oman’s capital city, Muscat, Saturday evening for trilateral talks with his US counterpart John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Zarif, Ashton and Kerry are scheduled to have a trilateral meeting on Sunday, whose agenda includes preparing the ground for the upcoming Iran-Group 5+1 (UN Security Council Big 5 plus German), according to IRNA’s dispatched reported to Muscat.

The talks will focus on disputes between the two parties, mainly about enrichment, lifting of sanctions and duration of agreement.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry deputies Abbass Araqchi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi as well as senior members of Iran nuclear negotiating team, John Kerry and William Joseph Burns, senior advisor to the US secretary of state, and Wendy Ruth Sherman, the US envoy to the G5+1, will be present in the talks.

Oman trilateral nuclear talks will be held on Sunday and Monday, November 9 and 10, and according to Araqchi, on the third day, Tuesday, November 11, the Iran-G5+1 talks will begin here in Muscat, which might take a day or longer.

Another member of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team told Iran that in this round of talks Iran and the Sextet will also decide about the date and place of their next round of talks.

In response to IRNA’s question whether Zarif, Kerry and Ashton will also have another trilateral negotiations before the next round of Iran-Sextet talks, he said: that depends on the outcome of Muscat talks.

Iran and the G5+1 could not reach an agreement on July 20, which is why they extended the period of nuclear negotiations for four more months till November 24, which is non-extendable according to the earlier reached Geneva agreement.

IRNA

Maher Taki