FM: Good will Key to Settlement of Iran’s N. Standoff with West

 (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran and the six world powers (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) will be able to strike a comprehensive deal in their upcoming talks if only the sextet show good will.

"Of course the Geneva agreement has an initial six-month deadline and we hope to achieve results in the same period; of course, it depends on the West's good will," Zarif said on Monday.

He explained that Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) will hold four days of talks next week to finally start drafting the text of the final agreement with the world powers.

"According to the Geneva agreement, Iran and the West have held several rounds of talks and this trend will continue and this time it will be in New York," the Iranian foreign minister said.

The talks between Tehran and the six world powers are part of efforts to seal a final deal on Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Deputy chief negotiators from Iran and the six world powers have had three rounds of talks since the Geneva interim nuclear deal in November. The last round ended on April 9.
The talks started on April 8 by a session presided by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Zarif at the UN headquarters in Vienna, and continued by a meeting among the deputy chief negotiators of the seven nations, chaired by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi and EU foreign policy deputy chief Helga Schmidt.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry in a statement on April 8 reiterated that its team of negotiators would not discuss any topic but the country's nuclear standoff with the West in its talks with the six world powers, including the present round in Vienna.