Iran, EU3 set to begin nuclear talks in Turkey

Representatives from Iran and three big European Union countries involved in negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program are set to hold a fresh round of nuclear talks.

The Islamic Republic and the EU three — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — will start the one-day talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul later on Thursday.

The Iranian negotiating team, led by Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araghchi, is due in Istanbul on Thursday.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe and Americas’ Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi, who is also an Iranian nuclear negotiator, arrived in Istanbul earlier in the day.

Helga Schmid, the deputy of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, will also participate in the talks.

Iran and P5+1 – the US, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany – are in talks to secure a final comprehensive deal over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran and P5+1 are close to reaching a final deal over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, adding that details are now being worked out in the talks.

“We are done with the generalities and have begun [discussing] details. Iran’s [uranium] enrichment program and the continuation of the nuclear program have been approved,” Zarif said on Tuesday.

Since an interim deal was agreed in Geneva in November 2013, the negotiating sides have missed two self-imposed deadlines to ink a final agreement.

Iran and the six powers now seek to reach a high-level political agreement by March 1 and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.