Iran holds bilateral N-talks with Russia, US in New York

On Thursday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi and Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe and the Americas Majid Takht-e Ravanchi held two hours of nuclear talks with their Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov in New York.

The two Iranian diplomats also sat down with US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to exchange views on the progress of nuclear discussions between Iran and the P5+1 – the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

The preparatory meetings come as Iran and the six states are set to officially kick off their seventh round of negotiations this year on the country’s nuclear energy program. The plenary talks will be held on Friday on the sidelines of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended a working lunch session with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in New York to review the latest on the talks aimed at reaching a final accord on Tehran’s civilian nuclear work by the November 24 deadline.

Zarif leads the Iranian delegation and Ashton represents the P5+1 states in the ongoing nuclear negotiations.

Last November, Tehran and its negotiating partners signed an interim deal in Geneva, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later.

In July, the two sides agreed to extend the negotiations until November 24 this year after they failed to reach common ground on a number of key issues.