Source rejects AP report on Iran-powers initial agreement on sanctions removal

A source close to the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers underway in Vienna, Austria, rejected reports about partial agreement between Iran and the sextet, stressing that any final agreement with the world powers should include detailed solutions and mechanisms for resolving all issues.

“Given the principle that ‘nothing will be agreed upon unless there is agreement on everything’, questions as to whether there has been a specific agreement on a certain topic are basically wrong,” the source who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the talks told FNA on Saturday.

The source’s remarks come as the Associated Press quoted two unnamed diplomats as saying that the experts of Iran and P5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) have agreed on the timetable for lifting the sanctions.

But, the AP report said the solution has been worked out in the experts’ meetings, while Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Majid Takht Ravanchi said the expert-level meetings wrapped up work on Thursday, and the remarks made by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the last two days show that the sanctions removal by the US-led West has still remained a stumbling block in the negotiations.

“Most of the issues in the experts’ meetings have ended, while talks among the deputies continue and there will possibly remain one or two issues that will need ministerial decisions,” Takht Ravanchi told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister on three different occasions in the last two days has called on the US-led West to decide if it intends to keep the sanctions in place or wants a deal with Iran.

In a televised message that was released last night, Zarif called on the Western powers to show flexibility and adopt a rational decision to strike a deal with Iran, reiterating that the US should first decide if it wants to continue pressures or sign a deal with Iran.