Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the European Union’s move to put the country’s biggest tanker firm back on its sanctions list defies logic.

“Their move is against logic because the West has not yet realized that sanctions are a kind of liability rather than an asset for them, [with] which they cannot advance their objectives,” Zarif told Mehr news agency.

On February 12, European Union governments agreed to put Iran’s biggest tanker firm back on a list of sanctioned companies.

The EU move to put back the Iranian company on its sanctions list comes as Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – are in talks to reach a comprehensive final agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Zarif said that a serious deal would seem unlikely as long as the US and EU regard sanctions as an effective way to press ahead with their objectives.

“If they really think that their sanctions are effective, [then] why do they negotiate with us? They [can] continue their sanctions,” he added.

Iran’s nuclear talks

Zarif reaffirmed Iran’s stance that a nuclear deal would be reached only if the two negotiating sides agree on all issues.

He said that the two sides can reach a comprehensive agreement once certain key issues are settled.

“In my opinion, we should definitely agree on all details by [Iranian calendar month of] Tir (beginning June 22). We cannot simply issue a political statement in Tir and then wait to agree on details. That would be an endless process that benefits no one,” Zarif said.

The senior Iranian official once again stressed that a comprehensive nuclear agreement would be possible if the opposite side demonstrated political will.

“If an agreement cannot be reached, it is because the other side lacks the political will to do so or because it cannot stand up to the Zionist lobby and pressure groups or because it wants to make excessive demands,” Zarif said.

Since an interim deal was sealed in the Swiss city of Geneva in November 2013, the negotiating sides have missed two self-imposed deadlines to ink a final comprehensive agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran and the P5+1 have set July 1 as the deadline for their current talks.

A senior Iranian negotiator says Iran and the United States will kick off a fresh round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Geneva on February 20.

The negotiations will begin on Friday when deputy foreign ministers from Iran and the US will hold talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araghchi.

Araghchi further noted he and Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi will sit down with a US delegation headed by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.

The talks between the deputy foreign minister will continue on Saturday, Araghchi said, adding, “On Sunday and Monday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry will join the negotiators and the talks will continue” between the delegations from the two countries.

“It is also likely that after the fourth day [of bilateral talks between Iran and the US] the negotiations are held at P5+1 level,” Araghchi added.

Sherman and her team will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to hold negotiations with Iranian officials, the State Department said on Wednesday.

“These bilateral consultations will take place in the context of the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran,” it added.

Iran and P5+1 – Russia, China, France, Britain, the United States and Germany – are seeking to seal a high-profile political deal by the end of March and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

Iranian and US negotiators will resume a new round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in the coming days.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and her team will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to hold negotiations with Iranian officials, the State Department said on Wednesday.

“These bilateral consultations will take place in the context of the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran,” it added.

It noted that Deputy Secretary General for the European Union’s External Action Service Helga Schmid would also join the bilateral talks.

The new round of talks will come as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have held meetings multiple times mostly in European capitals.

The last face-to-face meeting between Zarif and Kerry was held in the German city of Munich earlier this month, when they met twice on separate days on the sidelines of an international security conference.

Iran’s nuclear stance

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on February 10 that the country favors a “win-win” nuclear deal with P5+1, expressing hope that Tehran’s negotiating sides would show the necessary political resolve for the settlement of the nuclear case.

“Given the nuclear dossier, we have also managed to direct the negotiations to be constructive, and put the case on the track of… clinching an agreement between the two sides,” he added.

Iran and P5+1– Russia, China, France, Britain, the United States and Germany – are seeking to seal a high-profile political deal by the end of March and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the removal of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as the major stumbling blocks in the talks.

Iran has so far suspended some of its enrichment program in return for certain sanctions relief.