Brussels, 26/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 25-26 September, the Iranians and French stated that the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme, which had resumed between Iran and the E3+3 on 19 September, had not made significant progress. “At the time of speaking, there is no significant progress”, said France's Minister for Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius on Friday 26 September, stating that a ministerial meeting planned for the same day had been taken off the schedule due to a lack of progress. “There are elements on which there has been a certain number of openings and possibilities, especially on Arak [nuclear reactor]. But on others, there is no progress”, he added. “This means that we are going to have to meet again quickly”, Fabius said. The previous day, one of the main Iranian negotiators, Abbas Aragchi, had said that “these negotiations [have] not made any noteworthy progress in nearly ten days”. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier believed that they had “never been as close to an agreement as today”. “But it is true that the last phase of the negotiations is definitely the most difficult”, he added.
On 25-26 September, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, Iran's Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the progress made over the course of the negotiations and the way to proceed with the talks.
However, on 25 September, on the rostrum of the United Nations, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said he hoped the ongoing negotiations “would lead to a final agreement in the short time we have left” - in other words, before the 24 November deadline. “Any delay in reaching a final agreement only makes the costs go up - not only at our expense, but to the detriment of the economy and trade of other parties and of the development and security of our region”, Rohani stated. (CG)