Zarif – Kerry – Ashton End Trilateral Meeting

Vienna – Trilateral meeting among Iranian and US foreign ministers and the EU coordinator that had begun at 8:20 pm, local time here in Cobourg Hotel ended after two hours of negotiations.

According to IRNA’s dispatched reporter, John Kerry arrived in Vienna from Paris to join the Vienna 8 negotiations, which is supposed to be the last round of talks to lead to the signing of a comprehensive agreement by November 24.

The axis of Kerry-Zarif-Ashton talks will be deciding over the schedule of this round of negotiations as well as efforts made to resolve the remainder of disputes over Iran’s uranium enrichment and ways for lifting the anti-Iranian sanctions.

According to the US Department of State, Kerry had before these talks been engaged in bilateral and trilateral negotiations with the Iranian nuclear negotiation team to be informed about the latest stands of Tehran in Vienna 8.

The US secretary of state had also met and conferred his French and Saudi counterparts in Paris before arriving in Vienna.

In a joint press conference with Laurent Fabius and Saud al Faisal, Kerry said that the Sextet is not after extending the negotiations’ duration, but is negotiating to reach agreement.

‘We wish to reach an agreement, but not any kind of agreement. A practical agreement is to be achieved to ensure that the ways for getting access to nuclear weapons are blocked,’ he added.

The Iranian foreign minister and the other Islamic Republic officials have many times announced that achieving a favorable agreement in which the Iranian nation’s rights will be ensured is their objective.

Kerry was in London before visiting Paris, where he met the Omani Foreign Minister Youssef Bin Alawi for the second time in as many weeks after their meeting in Muscat.

Bin Alawi unofficially visited Tehran after his meeting with Kerry and had meetings and consultations with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Oman Sultanate has always played a mediating role between many countries, including Iran and the United States and had also mediated between the two sides before the Geneva Nuclear Agreement.

Iran-China hold bilateral talks in Vienna

Meanwhile also in Vienna,  top-ranking diplomats from Iran and China started their bilateral negotiations on the fourth day of Vienna talks on Iran’s nuclear program here on Friday.

Iran Foreign Ministry Deputies Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi will explore ways of finding a solution to the decade-long nuclear dispute between Iran and the West with China’s top negotiator in the P5+1.

According to IRNA correspondent in Vienna, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry and European Union coordinator Catherine Ashton are going to hold their second trilateral meeting at 11:00 o’clock local time after they met in Vienna last night.

Sanctions a tool for Iran’s economic growth, says Salami

On the other hand in Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Deputy Commander Brigadier-General Hossein Salami says the sanctions imposed against Iran have become a tool for further growth and prosperity of the country’s economy.

Speaking at a nationwide session of Basij officials of the judiciary, he said Iran is now the harbor for security of regional stability, energy, trade and shipping in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, adding that political security and stability, trust of people in the establishment and Iran’s dignity are at a high level.

He said: “Our dispute with the West is that they want to make an inefficient, unsuccessful and defeated model out of Iran and are not interested to see Iran set an example for Islamic communities.”

Salami further remarked there was a time when the Iranian revolution was forced to preserve its territorial integrity within its borders but today the border of political and ideological influence of the Islamic Revolution, influence of the resistance culture and Iran’s steadfastness are thousands of kilometers beyond its national geographical boundaries.

He termed the sanctions imposed on Iran as a tool for growth and prosperity of Iran’s economy and said: “Today we are more powerful than the past eight years and development of Iran’s power is heading forward at an amazing speed.”

Salami referred to the success of Iranian young athletes in international arena and said this self-confidence of our youth and their presence in international domains are indicative of the fact that “we’ve broken the siege.”

IRNA

R.S