Three-level nuclear talks among Iran, EU, US end in Lausanne

The latest round of nuclear talks held on three levels among representatives of Iran, the United States and the European Union have ended in Lausanne.

The negotiations on Thursday were held between Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry on the ministerial level.

Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, the Iranian deputy foreign ministers, also ended talks on a deputy level with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and the EU deputy foreign policy chief, Helga Schmid.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi and US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz also ended their separate meeting in the Swiss city.

Following his first round of talks with Moniz, Salehi told Press TV that the two sides decided to continue discussions in a one-on-one meeting.

“We will be continuing that discussion today, now I'm going to the meeting with Mr. Moniz and see what we can do about the technical issues. We have come close to a common understanding on many items but still there are some other items remaining that we will have to resolve in the sense that we have to come to a common understanding,” he added.

The Iranian official emphasized that “there is no agreement until we agree on everything.”

Salehi said the common understanding achieved on the technical items will certainly help the two sides to progress on the political side and also the legal side “because we have the technical, legal and political items that have to be discussed and they are interlinked,” so every one of them “helps the other items and so we are doing our best; we are optimistic but there's a lot of work to be done.”

Answering another question posed by Hispan TV on the progress of the talks, Salehi said, “The slope is positive. There is progress. This is the 4th time that I’m joining the meeting and there has always been progress…. We are moving forward but we have not still reached the end of the path that we have started.”

Zarif and his negotiating team had continued their intense marathon talks with the American side in Lausanne the previous week when the top Iranian diplomat also took some time to meet one-on-one in the Belgian capital of Brussels with the European foreign ministers of the P5+1 group - Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Philip Hammond of Britain and France’s Laurent Fabius. Zarif also sat down with EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in Brussels.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China - plus Germany have been in talks to resolve outstanding issues surrounding the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear program.

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