Parliament Speaker: Cutting Final N. Deal by Iran, Powers Possible

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani underlined that the differences between Tehran and the six major world powers have been narrowed down and attainment of a final nuclear deal is now possible.
“I believe that Iran (and the world powers) nuclear negotiations are making progress and there is no reason to have a negative view about the talks,” Larijani said in a live program on state television on Monday night.

He noted that the steps taken so far shows that the two sides can alleviate more problems in the nuclear talks, and said, “In some cases we naturally have some serious differences with the West.”

He pointed to the West’s opposition to Iran’s uranium enrichment, and said, “We are now after that situation, thanks to the resistance of the Iranian nation and the guidelines of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) and today we have uranium enrichment (cycle) and this shows that we are a producer (of nuclear fuel) now.”

After 7 days of bargaining, top negotiators from Iran and the six world powers ended their talks on November 24 after extending the deadline for reaching a final nuclear deal and issuing a joint statement.

Iran and the six world powers signed an interim deal on November 24, 2013 that came into effect on January 20.

The first deadline was on July 20 which was then extended until November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key issues.

Ever since the endorsement of the interim deal last November, Iran and the G5+1 have had 10 rounds of negotiations. The 10th and the last round of the talks ended in Vienna on Monday night.

The seven nations agreed to extend the talks once more and issued a joint statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Chief Coordinator Catherine Ashton announced in their joint communiqué that they extend the validity of the Geneva Joint Plan of Action (JPA) till June, 30, 2015 to provide time for more talks.