Salehi: Technical Experts to Participate in Talks between Iran, G5+1

Technical experts from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran are also due to take part in the talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany), AEOI Head Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Sunday.
“It was decided that a number of technical experts from the AEOI will be added to the (Iranian) negotiating team,” Salehi told reporters in Tehran today.

On November 24, Iran and the Group 5+1 sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action 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.

Iran and the six world powers ended a third round of expert-level talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday in a bid to devise mechanisms to implement the interim nuclear deal struck in November.

Salehi said that good progress was made in the latest round of the experts talks between the two sides, adding that some issues have still remained which are due to be discussed later, adding that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi will travel to Geneva soon to meet EU Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Schmidt to this very same end.

He expressed the hope that the differences between Iran and the world powers would be resolved soon, without elaborating on the remaining issues.

Salehi also underlined that the Joint Plan of Action (the Geneva agreement) signed by Tehran and the G5+1 members will be implemented in the third or fourth week of January.

The foreign ministry officials in Tehran announced on Friday that the timeline for the implementation of the November nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers would be set after an upcoming meeting between Araqchi and Schmidt.

“The exact date for the implementation of the Geneva agreement will be after an upcoming meeting between EU Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Schmidt and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator in talks with the world powers Majid Takht Ravanchi said on.

He further explained that the meeting between Araqchi and Schmidt will be held in a European city in the next two weeks.

Takht Ravanchi pointed to the progress in the Iran-Group 5+1 talks, and said, “Iran’s technical nuclear talks with the Sextet are almost complete and there remain a couple of issues which need to be decided by the two sides’ politicians.”

Takht Ravanchi underlined that these remaining technical matters would be resolved during the upcoming bilateral talks between Araqchi and Schmidt.