Brussels, 04/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 3 November, Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated that he is “not optimistic” about the negotiations between the E3+3 (Germany, France, United Kingdom and China, United States, Japan) and Iran on the nuclear programme. “I am not optimistic about the negotiations”, he said according to his official website, picked up by French news agency AFP. However, the Ayatollah said that “no one should weaken the negotiators, who have a difficult mission”. “If the negotiations succeed, so much the better, and if they don't succeed, that will mean that the country has to depend on its own strength”, he added.
However, on 1 November, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araghchi said that he was “optimistic” as regards the outlook for progress in the negotiations at the meeting in Geneva on 7-8 November. Stating that the E3+3 and Iran agreed on a framework in October, he said that Tehran has “good hope of making achievement on the content”, while stating that the path is “long and meandrous”.
Elsewhere, nuclear and scientific specialists, and experts on sanctions met on 30-31 October to discuss “various technical issues” ahead of this week's meeting. According to Araghchi, Iranian experts from the Ministries of Oil, Industry, Mining and Trade, of Urban and Rural Development, from the Central Bank of Iran and from the Nuclear Energy Organisation took part (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)