Senior Negotiator Views Talks with Russian Counterpart “Specially Important”

 “There have been constant talks and dialogue with the Russians on Iran’s nuclear program, and now on the threshold of the next round of Vienna negotiations they are of greater importance,” Araqchi said after holding talks with Ryabkov at Rome Airport on Wednesday night.

He added that in his talks with the Russian Deputy foreign minister, issues discussed in nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) went under consultation and discussion.

Araqchi added that the Tehran-Moscow consultations would continue in Vienna too.

The Iranian team also held bilateral talks with the French negotiators in Geneva on Wednesday.

Araqchi said the Iranian and French teams of negotiators had over 3 hours of useful talks in a positive atmosphere.

“These talks on the threshold of the upcoming Vienna negotiations were useful,” Araqchi told FNA on Wednesday.

He said that the two sides discussed issues related to the nuclear talks as Iran and the Group 5+1 are preparing for the next round of talks in the Austrian capital.

The French foreign ministry’s new political director Nicolas de Rivière, who has replaced the longtime lead negotiator and political director Jacques Audibert, was leading France’s negotiating team in today’s meeting.

Araqchi and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi were heading Iran’s delegation in the talks.

On Monday afternoon, representatives from Iran, EU and the United States had five hours of trilateral talks, followed by a bilateral meeting between the Iranian and American delegations in Geneva on Tuesday.

Meantime, the German’s top envoy to the Iran-Group 5+1 talks Hans Deiter Lucas is also due to meet his Iranian counterparts in Tehran next Sunday.

The bilateral talks between Iran and the G5+1 members come ahead of the next round of the multilateral negotiations among the seven nations to be held in Vienna on June 16-20.

In November 2013, the two sides signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva that came into force on January 20. The deadline for attaining a final deal is July 20.

Iran and the six world powers last met in their fourth round of talks in Vienna on May 14-16. Since the November deal, the seven nations have been discussing ways to iron out differences and start drafting a final deal that would end the West’s dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

After the May meeting, Iran said there has been no tangible progress in writing the draft text of the agreement and it blamed the US for the failure, saying Washington has made excessive demands beyond the agreements made in the previous rounds of talks.