A fresh round of talks between Iran and world powers kicked off Thursday with a push for Tehran to freeze its disputed nuclear program in exchange for some relief from sanctions.
A fresh round of talks between
Iran
and
world powers kicked off Thursday with a push for
Tehran
to
freeze its disputed nuclear program in exchange for some relief from sanctions.
Officials have said that a long-awaited deal on curbing
Iran
's
nuclear ambitions may be finally within reach, after years of fruitless talks
were given fresh momentum by the election of
Iran
's new
President Hassan Rouhani, seen as a relative moderate.
In their second meeting in
Geneva
in
less than a month, negotiators from the
U.S.
and
five other global powers sat down with Iranian officials for two days of talks
aimed at hammering out an agreement.
Chaired by Catherine Ashton--the European Union diplomatic chief who heads what
is dubbed P5+1 group of the
U.K.
,
China
,
France
,
Russia
, the
U.S.
and
Germany
--the
initial talks ended after 45 minutes but were set to resume later.
"The talks are extremely complex and are now getting into a serious
phase," Ashton's spokesman Michael Mann told journalists.
"It was a good opening session... We have agreed with the Iranian side that
we will not go into the details, into the substance of what's being discussed
in the room," he said.
"But we very much hope of course that there will be concrete progress here
over the next couple of days."
In a possible indication the talks were making progress, Iranian officials said
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who opened the negotiations with Ashton,
had cancelled a trip to
Rome
.
Iran's lead negotiator in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, said
in comments shown on Iranian state television that Zarif would be staying in
Geneva because talks "have entered a complicated, difficult and
intensive" phase.
He said Iranian officials would be meeting separately with European, Russian,
Chinese and
U.S.
officials Thursday before full talks resume in the early evening.
"There are serious differences still remaining but what is important is
that both sides have serious will to bridge these differences," Araqchi
said.
Both sides have said recent talks have been the most productive in years but
admit that reaching a deal will not be easy.
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