Brussels, 22/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 19 April, Iran's deputy minister for foreign affairs, Abbas Araghchi, stated that fresh technical negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme would take place in New York on 5-9 May between Iran and the countries of the 5+1 group (the US, France, the UK, Russia, China and Germany).
“These negotiations will take place on the sidelines of the meeting for reviewing the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) that will take place in New York on 5-9 May”, said Aragchchi. He added that “the fourth round of political negotiations will take place in Vienna on 13 May, in the presence of the head of Iranian diplomacy”, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “The writing of the final agreement, which is a difficult and complicated task, will begin during this round”, he added, stating that Zarif will meet High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton (our translation). After a provisional agreement was concluded at the end of November on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, Iran and the countries of the 5+1 group have had three rounds of negotiations in order to prepare a final agreement to put an end to this crisis. The objective is to reach an agreement by 20 July 2014. Iran's President Hassan Rohani said that an agreement was close to being made in the coming months. Nevertheless, the difficult issues - such as the size of the uranium enrichment programme, the number and power of the centrifuges that Tehran will be permitted to possess, and whether or not the Arak heavy water reactor will be maintained - still need to be settled. The objective of these negotiations is to have assurances of the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme and, in return, the lifting of all international sanctions that hit hard at the Iranian economy. (LC)