Zarif: Mutual Goodwill, Guarantee For Implementing Joint Agreement

Geneva, Nov 9, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Minister and top nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif said here on Friday that guarantee for proper implementation of and joint Iran-P5+1 agreement is only the two sidesˈ good will. ˈIf any of the side would fail in making the moves that will be included in this joint agreement, there should be a mechanism, which I, too, had proposed in Iranˈs plan and presented a while ago for supervision over this process,ˈ Zarif said in an interview with IRNA. About the structure of the upcoming agreement document, Zarif said, ˈIran intends to reach a shared text of agreements to serve as a framework for achieving objectives, from the first to the last steps in its implementation.ˈ Further focusing on guarantees for the implementation of the expected agreement after a long standstill, which was due to waste of time in giving lectures, we are truly negotiating now, and naturally announcing stand is of great importance. He referred to the privileges of this straight forward approach, although there are fears that one side will not remain committed to the reached agreements. ˈWe have now entered the course of a process which can be very positive and mark an end to this artificially made crisis. As we have named our plan, it should end well although it will come after a bad course of events and serve as the threshold to a new phase,ˈ he said. He said that hallucinating about the expectations that no one knows how achievable they might be would lead nowhere. ˈWe enter this process with this approach and hope to be able to achieve progress if possible, but it is a very tough job. The issues before us are very complicated and if we would reach an agreement, that we will, that will be the beginning of more tough work and the important point then will be moving in the right direction.ˈ IRNA asked for the reason why after first round of talks Iran separated its talks with the three European countries from its bilateral talks with the US, Russia and China. ˈWe intended to have bilateral talks with each of these six countries. I was not present, but it had been agreed that my colleagues would have separate talks with each of the six countries. But the European countries themselves proposed that they would talk as a trio, which incidentally led to fruitful talks,ˈ he said. Referring to the positive atmosphere of the talks both with Ms. Ashton and in Iran-P5+1 talks Zarif said that we must now wait and see whether that positive atmosphere will be preserved in presenting the joint agreement, which is a matter for which we have to wait and see. IRNA asked whether there have been talks on lifting the oil, banking and trade sanctions, too, in this round of talks. Zarif said, ˈThe sanctions issue is a very important matter in need of due attention in all levels of talks and they must be lifted, but since in this sensitive phase I do not intend to enter details, I cannot talk about the extent and phase of the sanctions that will be initially lifted.ˈ IRNA said that in the previous round of talks Iran held two bilateral talks with the Americans, asking Zarif for his evaluation of them. Zarif said that the evaluation of him and his colleagues on the entirety of the talks is that they were held in relatively appropriate atmosphere and there is hope that this atmosphere would be preserved, and hopefully led into reaching final agreements. IRNA asked if it is possible to talk with the Americans on other issues, as well. ˈPresently the nuclear issue and resolving it is in the agenda, which has been a serious obstacle and the cause for pessimism and lack of trust, after which moving to the next phase will be possible,ˈ said the Iranian top diplomat./end