Iran nuclear team powerful in Geneva

A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official says the country’s negotiating team conducted the Geneva nuclear talks with power and authority.

On Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that some of the six major world powers proved through their stances that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his team worked with dignity and wisdom.

The closed-door talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain — plus Germany began in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday and ended in the early hours of Sunday.

Amir-Abdollahian said that the Iranian team negotiated logically with a powerful stance.

The two sides could not reach a deal in Geneva, but stressed that significant progress had been made and expressed optimism about the prospect of achieving a deal. The two sides agreed to continue negotiations on November 20 in the same venue.

After the talks, Zarif said at a joint press conference with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that progress had been made during the “productive” negotiations and that the two sides had reached an agreement on a number of issues.

Ashton also said that the two sides had made “concrete progress” in the talks, which she described as “intense and constructive.”