Iran

‘Iran to regroup nuclear negotiators’

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A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator says more experts will join the upcoming negotiations with six major world powers on the final step in the implementation of the Geneva deal.

“[Iran’s] team of experts will likely be regrouped for holding [expert-level] negotiations pertaining to the final step [of the nuclear deal],” Iran Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday.

“When expert-level negotiations begin on the final step [in the implementation of the Geneva deal], the expert team will likely be reorganized and will be strengthened in view of the issues pertaining to the final step,” Araqchi pointed out.

The top Iranian negotiator also welcomed efforts to increase the number of experts who will be attending the talks.

Earlier on Sunday, Director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi stated that more experts will join Iranian negotiators in future expert-level talks with the six countries.

“Since from now on, the [expert-level] talks focus on details, which include fuel cycle and Arak heavy water reactor, different specialties are needed,” he said.

On Friday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American affairs Majid Takht-e Ravanchi said Araqchi and Helga Schmid, deputy of EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, will meet soon to resolve the remaining nuclear issues.

The issues that Iran and the six major world powers failed to resolve during expert-level negotiations would be settled during the meeting between Araqchi and Schmid, he added.

Experts from Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US – plus Germany concluded their latest round of talks on December 31 which were aimed at devising a mechanism to implement a landmark interim deal reached between the two sides in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24.

Under the Geneva deal, the six countries undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period.

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