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Iran optimistic but cautious over nuclear talks prospects | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Video cameras stand in front of a poster of the Iran talks during closed-door nuclear talks at a hotel in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)


Video cameras stand in front of a poster of the Iran talks during closed-door nuclear talks at a hotel in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday, October 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Video cameras stand in front of a poster of the Iran talks during closed-door nuclear talks at a hotel in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday, October 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Vienna, Reuters—Iran does not expect a breakthrough in high-level nuclear talks with the United States and the European Union this week, but hopes they will help pave the way for a final deal, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted by Iran’s Fars news agency after arriving in Vienna, where he was due to meet European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. US Secretary of State John Kerry will join them on Wednesday.

Zarif’s cautious optimism came a day after President Hassan Rouhani told Iranian television that a nuclear agreement was “certain” and that only “fine details” remained to be negotiated.

Talks between Iran and six powers (the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain) are due to conclude by a self-imposed November 24 deadline with, diplomats hope, a deal to end a standoff that has lasted more than a decade.

In another sign of attempts to accelerate negotiations, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Moscow that a meeting between Iran and the six powers would be held on Thursday in the Austrian capital, a day after the one between Zarif, Ashton and Kerry, Tass news agency reported.

“The main thing for us now is that time is not being lost,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. Thursday’s talks would be held by senior foreign ministry officials, known as political directors.

Last week, a US official said no such meeting was planned.

Ashton, who heads the team negotiating with Iran, will “work as hard as she can” to try and get a good agreement by the deadline, her spokesman Michael Mann said. “That is extremely important in every way.”

With only six weeks to go, Western officials say significant differences remain, especially over the future scope of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, activity that can have both civilian and military uses.

One of Iran’s chief negotiators, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, raised the possibility last week that the talks could be extended. However, a US State Department official said Washington believed there was still time to reach a comprehensive solution by the target date.

Iran rejects Western allegations that it is seeking nuclear weapons capability. It has refused to halt uranium enrichment, and has been hit with US, EU and UN Security Council sanctions as a result.

After years of escalating tensions, the election last year of Rouhani, seen as a pragmatist, on a platform to ease Tehran’s international isolation raised hopes of a diplomatic settlement.

“Although we do not expect a breakthrough in the trilateral negotiations [between Zarif, Ashton and Kerry] . . . still this round could pave the way for a final agreement,” Fars quoted Zarif as saying. “On the agenda is the volume of uranium enrichment and the timetable for lifting the sanctions.”

Israel has threatened to use military force against Iranian atomic sites if diplomacy fails to ensure Iran is deprived of the means of developing nuclear weapons. Tehran says Israel’s presumed atomic arsenal is the main threat to peace.

Iran and the six powers last November reached an interim deal under which Tehran suspended its most sensitive nuclear activity in exchange for some easing of the sanctions.