Araqchi: No deal yet but many issues resolved

No deal on the Iranian nuclear program has been struck yet but many issues have been resolved, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Sunday.

‘There is no deal yet, but we have found solutions to many issues,’ Araqchi said in an interview with Iranian television.

Iran demands that all sanctions and UN resolutions imposing restrictions against Tehran be scrapped as part of its nuclear deal with major world powers, Araqchi said.

‘It is time for P5+1 to make tough decisions and to lift all sanctions,’ Araqchi told journalists at the ongoing talks in Lausanne, Switzerland.

‘All six UN resolutions should be lifted,’ he added.

Over the past decades, the UN Security Council, the United States, the European Union and a number of other countries imposed sanctions on Iran in a bid to curtail its nuclear program as they suspected Iran of trying to build an atomic bomb.

‘There is no deal yet, but we have found solutions to many issues,’ Araqchi said, adding that the two unresolved issues concerned Iran’s nuclear activities and sanctions against Tehran.

A new round of talks between Iran and six major world powers – Britain, France, China, Russia, the United States and Germany – are convening at Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in the Swiss resort city of Lausanne.

The negotiators are working towards the interim deadline that expires by Tuesday night when they are expected to hammer out a provisional framework deal, to be followed by a final agreement in summer.