Iran denies holding secret talks with U.S.

An informed source at the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday dismissed the news reports claiming that Iran and the United States had held secret talks.
As Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had previously said, no talks between Tehran and Washington outside the framework of the nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany) have been held, the source said.

In a report published on Sunday, Reuters claimed that U.S. and Iranian officials met secretly in such out-of-the-way places as Oman, using military planes, side entrances and service elevators to conceal their efforts to lay the ground for Sunday’s nuclear agreement.

Reuters also claimed that the contacts, first reported in detail by the Associated Press, helped to bring about a deal that could help to end a decade-long impasse over Iran’s nuclear work.

After four days of talks, Iran and six world powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, known as the P5+1 – clinched an interim deal according to which Iran will slow the pace of its nuclear activities in exchange for some sanctions relief.