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Lavrov discusses Iran talks with Kerry by phone

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have discussed the talks on Iran's nuclear programme, underway in the Austrian capital of Vienna, in a phone conversation initiated by the U.S. side, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The conversation continued "discussion of the talks in Vienna aimed at reaching a final deal on Iran's nuclear programme," the ministry said.

Iran and six major world powers (UN Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany, known as the P5+1 group) are continuing talks in Vienna with the aim to reach a final deal. On Friday the negotiating sides made a decision to extend the talks until July 13.

Earlier on Saturday, Kerry said after his meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini that difficult issues still remained on the table of the talks.

At the same time, a Western diplomatic source told TASS that Iran and the P5+1 group had failed to reach a compromise on weapons embargo. He said that Iran was ready to maintain the embargo only "for six months after the deal." But he refrained to clarify either the Western countries’ position or Iran’s readiness to make some concessions.