Vienna III Nuclear Talks Start

Vienna, April 8, IRNA - The third round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers started in Vienna as both sides are expected to discuss outstanding issues in a bid to kick off negotiations on drafting a comprehensive final nuclear agreement in May. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who met with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton for a working dinner Monday evening, stressed he had useful discussions with the EU official. Talks with Ashton focused on the manner of continuing negotiations and the remaining issues in this phase of talks, Zarif said. Iranˈs top diplomat stressed there was still a lot of hard work ahead to reach a final deal by July 20. Preparing a draft agreement is among the most difficult parts of tough negotiations, Zarif told reporters Monday night. According to Iranˈs Deputy Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi, Tehran hopes to make sufficient progress at this round of talks. ˈWe hope that in the upcoming talks, we would be able to bring the views closer and narrow the differences regarding major issues, so we could get to the details ... and start writing the text,ˈ Araqchi told Iranˈs Press TV. Western diplomats - notably from Germany and the US -- were upbeat that an agreement could be sealed by July 20. Earlier Franceˈs top representative at the talks went reportedly as far as to say that a nuclear accord could even be reached before the July 20 deadline./end