TEHRAN, June 4 (PNA/IRNA) — International mediators and Iran are expected to hold a plenary meeting in Vienna on Thursday to continue elaborating the deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Diplomats from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Iran met for another round of talks in the Austrian capital on Wednesday. The mediators are working against an end-of-June deadline to strike a comprehensive agreement with Iran that would guarantee the peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of sanctions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday he will meet with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday to discuss the state of Iran nuclear negotiations.
The sextet of mediators held a plenary meeting on Wednesday, according to a source in the Russian delegation. Russia and China also held a bilateral meeting.
The mechanism of re-imposing sanctions in the event that Iran violates the conditions of the deal is one of the sticking points in the talks, along with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gaining access to Iranian military sites, which Tehran says are not related to its nuclear program.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday that the P5+1 would try to use this round of talks to work out a mechanism for scaling back the anti-Iran sanctions.
In April, Iran and the P5+1 group worked out a political framework agreement on the Iranian nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Under the deal, Tehran pledged to cut back its uranium enrichment and decrease its number of centrifuges in exchange for a gradual lifting of international sanctions related to the nuclear program. (PNA/IRNA)