Iran-P5+1 talks progressed quite well: Russia

A Russian Foreign Ministry official says talks between Iran and six world powers over Tehran’s nuclear energy program have “progressed quite well.”

“We have progressed quite well, the atmosphere is very good, and the work is business-like and result-oriented,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a telephone interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency from the Austrian capital of Vienna on Thursday.

“But saying that we have the outlines of an agreement now would be encroaching upon the truth. There are none,” he added.

Referring to a late-July deadline that was set in November last year between Tehran and the six nations for a final nuclear agreement, Ryabkov said, “I don’t see any reasons to say that this deadline could be shifted and that this schedule is becoming unrealizable. There are no reasons for this so far.”

Iran and six powers – Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – inked an interim accord in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 2013. The accord took effect on January 20. Under the deal, the parties should draw up a final settlement agreement by July 20.

The Russian diplomat also urged the negotiators in the talks to step up their efforts “especially as concerns the search for practical solutions and decisions rather than just elaborating approaches and airing some technical, political, or organizational details of what we are doing now.”

“We should simply focus on looking for a basis for a compromise in all areas,” Ryabkov said.

He listed the issue of easing sanctions against Iran, prospects of uranium enrichment activities in the Islamic Republic, prospects of the development of peaceful nuclear cooperation with Tehran, and the future of a heavy-water reactor in Arak as the pivots of the recent round of talks, wrapped up in Vienna on Wednesday.

“This discussion has assumed a very serious dimension at the political level… and the degree to which each of these four sets of issues was elaborated was unprecedented,” Ryabkov said.