Technical talks must protect Iran’s nuclear rights: Salehi

Technical talks on Iran’s nuclear program must take into account the country’s national nuclear rights, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says.

“In technical negotiations, we should both safeguard our interests and try to technically alleviate the fabricated concerns raised by the opposite side,” Ali Akbar Salehi said.

He added that in his recent talks with US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in the Swiss city of Geneva, “we reviewed technical issues which had caused an impasse [in Iran’s nuclear negotiations].”

“Fortunately, we obtained very good results and took long steps, but there are still issues which should be discussed,” Salehi said.

The AEOI head noted that Iran’s nuclear talks with global powers include technical, legal and political aspects.

Iran-US talks in Geneva

Nuclear talks between representatives from Iran and the United States started on Sunday in Geneva and the two sides held three rounds of nuclear talks in two days in an attempt to narrow differences ahead of a key July 1 deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal.

The AEOI head and the US energy secretary were also present in the talks while they also held separate bilateral meetings.

The Geneva talks were part of attempts by Iran and the P5+1 countries – Britain, France, China, Russia, and the United States plus Germany – to narrow their differences on the outstanding issues related to Tehran’s nuclear program.

The two sides have missed two deadlines since an interim deal was signed in November 2013. They have set July 1 as the next deadline for the talks.

The next round of nuclear talks between Iranian negotiators and representatives of the P5+1 group of countries is scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in the Geneva, on Monday.