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‘No date for implementing N-deal at expert talks’

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Expert-level talks between Iran and the Sextet have so far failed to determine a start date for the implementation of the nuclear deal sealed between the two sides in Geneva.

Two diplomats involved in the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely that negotiations would lead to an agreement on a date for Iran to start a six-month freeze of parts of its nuclear energy program according to the November 24 deal, reported the AFP.

The two-day meeting between experts from Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, Russia, Britain, France and the US – plus Germany began on Monday in the Austrian capital of Vienna, but was extended into a third day.

“It’s difficult to imagine that happening,” one of the diplomats said, adding that the issue might be decided in the next meeting of senior officials from Iran and the Sextet, the date for which has not been yet determined.

“It’s certainly going well in terms of that the talks are lengthy and that they are constructive discussions,” the other envoy noted.

“My sense is that given that there are seven or eight entities involved with their own views, it’s inevitably going to take time,” he added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Reza Najafi on Monday described the meetings as “satisfactory”.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the Vienna expert-level talks are aimed at devising mechanisms to implement the interim nuclear deal struck in the Swiss city of Geneva between Iran and the six powers on November 24.

The interim agreement is aimed at paving the way for the full resolution of the decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program.

In exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the US and its allies have agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

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