Vienna : Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday held another meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry in the Austrian capital, as part of the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers.
Deputy foreign ministers as well as experts from both sides were also present in the Sunday session, Press TV reported.
Ahead of his Saturday talks with Kerry, Zarif told reporters that hard work was needed to nail down a final nuclear deal, adding: “We’re determined to do everything we can in order to be able to get to this important milestone.”
Kerry said he was hopeful but stressed that there was a lot of hard work remaining to clinch a final agreement.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has also arrived in Vienna for the talks. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond were also expected to join the negotiations.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who arrived in Vienna on Saturday, said he would leave for Paris on Sunday but would return to the Austrian capital on Tuesday.
Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Li Baodong has arrived in Vienna, while Russia has announced that its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would join the nuclear negotiations later on Tuesday.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, Russia, China, France, Britain plus Germany — are holding talks to finalise the text of a possible deal over Iran’s nuclear programme by the end of June.
The two sides reached mutual understanding on the key parameters of the potential deal in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.
Kerry met again with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Vienna on Sunday, posting a photo of the meeting on the social media network Twitter, followed by another image showing him with Mogherini.
Ahead of the meeting, Mogherini told reporters it was hoped that the understanding reached in Switzerland in April could be translated “into a political, sound agreement” in the next couple of days.
The negotiations are aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program and keeping it from building a nuclear bomb, though Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful.
A senior U.S. administration official later reiterated that the deadline for an agreement could shift.
