Deputy FMs Leave Geneva For Italy

Tehran, June 12, IRNA – Iranian deputy foreign ministers Seyyed Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takte-Ravanchi left Geneva, Switzerland for Italy on Wednesday night following three days of bilateral talks with US and French delegations there. Araqchi and Ravanchi are accompanied in this trip with Managing Director of Foreign Ministry’s Political and International Affairs Office Davoud Mohammadnia and Chief of Staff of the Managing Director of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Pezhman Rahmian. The Iranian delegation is scheduled to participate in Rome Disarmament Conference and to negotiate with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Iran’s nuclear program prior to the nuclear talks with the sextet. In Geneva, the Iranian delegation had bilateral negotiations with the US delegation, headed by the US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in the presence of the EU Foreign Policy Advisor Helga Schmidt for eleven and a half hours on lifting of the sanctions and the nuclear issue. The Iranian delegation also had a three hour and fifteen minute bilateral talk with the new French representative in 5+1G, Nicholas de Riviere at the residence of the Iranian ambassador to the European Headquarters of the UN in Geneva. Araqchi told IRNA in Geneva that the talks with the French delegation were held in a positive atmosphere and were useful at the threshold of the next round of Vienna negotiations with the six world powers. “In these talks the topics of the nuclear issues were consulted and such bilateral consultation will also continue in Vienna,” he said. On Iran’s bilateral talks with the Americans, Araqchi said that the negotiations were intensive and tough, but they were held amid a positive atmosphere. The deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs reiterated, “Ideas were exchanged finely, which was a fruitful practice at the threshold of the next round of negotiations in Vienna on June, 16. IRNA asked whether the frank and face to face negotiations in Geneva have led to decreasing the differences of opinion. Araqchi replied, “There was good exchange of viewpoints, but still the differences remain, which will emerge at times where certain issues will emerge, which is why the consultations still need to continue.” Prior to the next round of negotiations in Vienna, the Iranian delegation will also hold a round of bilateral consultations with Germany in Tehran on June 15. The German representative in 5+1G is scheduled to visit Tehran for participation in a Foreign Ministry’s Political and International Studies seminar, where the two sides will negotiate on the nuclear issue. Araqchi had before the beginning of this round of bilateral talks told the reporters that the gaps between the Iranian stands and those of the six powers still exist on various issues adding that serious efforts are needed to fill them. “The countries on other side of the negotiations need to take tough decisions to be able to meet our viewpoints and by accepting and approving of the Iranian nation’s rights, they need to confirm them,” he said. Referring to the next round of Iran-5+1G nuclear negotiations in Vienna, June 16-20, he said, “We expect to be able to enter the details in this round of talks and to begin drafting the final agreement’s text; the expectation we also had of the Vienna 4 negotiations.” Araqchi expressed hope that during the next round of talks in Vienna 5, that objective will be achieved so that the differences over the general issues will be approximated and the details will be focused, which he said is still optimistic. The Geneva and Rome political and technical talks are held after the Geneva 4 negotiations which ended without achieving any tangible results. Before these talks, too, the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton had held talks on May 26-27 in Istanbul, Turkey. The Iran-5+1G technicians’ meeting, too, was held simultaneously with the seasonal meeting of the IAEA board of governors on June 5 and 5 in Vienna, Austria. Since Iran and the 5+1G representatives have held political and technical talks in various levels before the beginning of their official negotiations on June 16 it is expected that the two sides’ viewpoints have got closer to each other so that they will be able to begin drafting the final text of their agreement during their Vienna 5 negotiations./end