Brussels, 20/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 30 March, negotiations to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme were continuing in Lausanne. The deadline for a political agreement has been set for Tuesday 31 March.
On Saturday, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini met the European foreign ministers in Lausanne - Frank-Walter Steinmeier from Germany, Philip Hammond from the UK and Laurent Fabius from France. They were joined by their Chinese and Russian counterparts, Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov respectively. US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister have already been in Lausanne for several days.
The weekend provided an opportunity for holding a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings. On Monday morning, the ministers and Mogherini met for their first plenary session since the end of November. The meeting lasted just over an hour. Bilateral meetings and a meeting bringing together members from the E3+3 (Germany, France, UK and China, US, Russia) took place afterwards and were continuing as EUROPE went to press. It was possible that another plenary session would take place in the evening.
According to one Western source quoted by French news agency AFP on Monday afternoon, the negotiations were still stalling on three major points: the period of time for an agreement (a minimum of 15 years for the West, a maximum of 10 years for Iran); the lifting - gradual or immediate - of UN-imposed sanctions; and a guarantee mechanism to verify that the commitments were being respected. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)