News / Nuclear Energy

Iran denies report on ‘tentative agreement’ over sanctions relief

Saturday, 04 July 2015 1:47 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 04 July 2015 3:13 PM ]

Senior diplomats from Iran, the US and the EU meet in Vienna, July 3, 2015. (AFP photo)

Iran has denied a report claiming that it has reached tentative agreement with the P5+1 group of world countries on the removal of the sanctions against the Islamic Republic in the course of ongoing nuclear negotiations in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

A source close to the Iranian negotiating team said Saturday that some major sticking points still remained between Iran and its negotiating partners over the issue of sanctions relief.

Earlier in the day, a report by the Associated Press quoted unidentified diplomats in Vienna as saying that Iran and the P5+1 countries – the United States, Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany – had reached “tentative agreement” on the thorny issue of sanctions relief.

The report claimed that experts from the two sides had agreed on a document outlining the timing and scope of the sanctions relief; it said the text now needed to be signed off on by more senior officials from the two sides.

The source close to the Iranian team said such reports were “fundamentally baseless.”

A journalist rests outside the Palais Coburg Hotel where the Iran nuclear talks meetings are being held in Vienna, Austria on July 3, 2015. (AFP Photo)

It said the fundamental principle that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” applied to all issues of concern in the negotiations.

Iran and the P5+1 extended a June 30 deadline for seven days to have more time to reach a comprehensive deal on the Iranian peaceful nuclear program by July 7.

Iran insists on its position that all economic and trade sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear program should terminate on the day Tehran starts implementing its commitments based on the potential agreement.

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