Iran, US start 2nd round of nuclear talks in Lausanne

Tehran, March 17, IRNA – Iran and the United States have kicked off the second round of talks in the day in the Swiss city of Lausanne in an attempt to bridge differences on the outstanding issues pertaining to Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, Zarif’s deputies, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, special assistant to Iran's president, Hossein Fereidoun, US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman as well as the European Union deputy foreign policy chief, Helga Schmid, are present in the current round of the talks which started on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Salehi said up to 90 percent of differences over technical issues have been resolved, a major sign that Tehran is successfully bridging its differences with global powers on the details of its peaceful nuclear program. “We have reached mutual understanding on a majority of issues [in the negotiations], there just remains a single sticking point, which is very important,” he told IRIB News. The latest round of negotiations about the Iranian nuclear program kicked off in the Swiss city on Sunday with Salehi and Moniz holding high-level technical talks. Experts from Iran and the US as well as the AEOI spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, also participated in the meeting. Speaking after his five-hour meeting with Kerry on Monday, Zarif said solutions to outstanding nuclear issues with the P5+1 countries are at hand although differences still remain between the two sides. “We are closer to a solution in some cases and it can therefore be said that solutions are at hand, but in some cases solutions are still elusive,” the chief Iranian negotiator said. Iran and the P5+1 countries – the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia plus Germany – are seeking to seal a comprehensive nuclear deal by July 1.The two sides have already missed two self-imposed deadlines for inking a final agreement since they signed an interim one in the Swiss city of Geneva in November 2013.