Local Editor
Iran and the six major world powers started a second day of talks in Vienna on Wednesday trying to reach a comprehensive agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The meeting, which began on Tuesday, aims to set out a broad agenda for talks that could in time produce an agreement on the permissible scope of Iran’s nuclear activities and lay to rest Western concerns about their possible military dimension.
The new round of talks between Iran and the G5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Tuesday morning.
The negotiations began with a symbolic meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who leads the team of Iranian negotiators, and the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the six world powers (also known as P5+1 or E3+3).
The two sides concluded the first session of the negotiations after less than an hour on Tuesday.
Afterwards, the Iranian team of nuclear negotiators, headed by the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Sayyed Abbas Araqchi, had a meeting with the representatives of Germany, France and Britain (E3) later in the evening, according to Iran’s Tasnim Website.
And later on, the Iranian negotiators attended a bilateral meeting with the US delegation, headed by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.
The bilateral meeting lasted for 80 minutes, but no details were provided afterwards.
“The conversation was productive and focused mainly on how the comprehensive talks will proceed from here,” a senior US State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Source: Al Manar
