Process of drafting nuclear deal moving forward, Zarif says

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran and P5+1 are working on the draft of a final deal over Tehran’s nuclear work.

In a tweet on Monday, Zarif said that the process of drafting is “moving forward” as the two sides are “determined to end this manufactured crisis & open new horizons.”

The Iranian top diplomat, however, stressed that “many brackets” still remain which need to resolved by hard work.

Experts from Iran and the six global powers are currently in New York to try to reach a draft agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program.

An earlier tweet by senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi described the drafting process as “difficult,” noting that there are many bracketed points of disagreement in the text.

Araghchi has expressed hope that the first draft would come out within the next few days.

On Sunday, Hamid Baeedinejad, another member of Iran’s negotiating team, said that the two sides are taking all technical and legal aspects into regard during the drafting process and thus spend hours on every word, phrase and sentence of the proposed text.

“The issues that are not agreed upon following extensive discussions will be enclosed in brackets for further elaboration,” he added.

Reports said that the negotiations would continue over the next days in New York.

Iran and P5+1– the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, and Germany – reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

Iran and the six-party group have agreed to finalize a comprehensive deal by the end of June.