Rafsanjani: Resolution of Standoff over Iran’s N. Program Within Reach

“If the West wants the issue (standoff on Iran’s nuclear program) resolved in a technical manner, it will not need a long time, because the grounds are prepared for the final deal,” Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Tehran on Monday.

He explained that the talks over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program per se are not complicated, but that it is difficult to make an accurate prediction.

“However, we are hopeful about a bright prospect (for the talks)”, he added.

Kurz, for his part, said it is an honor for Austria to host the negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), and expressed the hope that the talks would yield desirable results.

Iran and the group of six world powers have in November last year signed an interim deal on Tehran’s nuclear case, which stipulates that over the course of six months, the parties will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on Iran.

The two sides wrapped up their latest round of high-level nuclear talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on April 9.

There will be a fresh round of high-level talks between Iran and the sextet in Vienna beginning on May 13.

Tasnim News Agency