Iran

Rouhani: World Powers Resolved to Settle Iran N. Standoff

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underlined that the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) have shown their early firm resolve to settle their dispute with Tehran over the country’s nuclear program.
“Our first (new round of) meeting with the six big powers shows that the determination for the final settlement (of the issue) is witnessed in the other side,” Rouhani said, addressing a number of Iranian industrialists in the Southern city of Hormozgan on Tuesday.

He expressed the hope that the G5+1 would continue the same path in the next rounds of the talks with Iran.

On Thursday, Iran and six world powers agreed on an agenda for negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and will meet again next month in Vienna, a senior Iranian official said after two days of talks in the Austrian capital.

This indicates an early step forward in the elusive search for a settlement of the decade-old dispute, even though the sides remain far apart on how to resolve it and both Iran and the United States have publicly stated it may not be possible to reach a final agreement.

Negotiators from Iran and the Sextet of the world powers met in Vienna on February 18-20 to hammer out an agenda for talks on a final deal to the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear activities.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, “The involved parties have agreed on an agenda and a framework and the next round of talks will be in the second half of March in Vienna.”

A senior US state department official earlier said about the second day of talks last Wednesday, “Today’s discussions, which covered both process and substance, were constructive and useful.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who headed the Iranian delegation, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who presided over the delegations of the six world powers, ended their last round of talks on Thursday.

The negotiations will probably extend at least over several months, and could help defuse years of hostility between energy-exporting Iran and the West, ease the danger of a new war in the Middle-East, transform the regional power balance and open up major business opportunities for western firms.

The developments came after Iran and the G5+1 sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action in November to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides and reach a comprehensive agreement.

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