VIENNA, June 10. /TASS/. Iran and six world powers negotiating over Tehran’s nuclear programme will start a new round of talks in Vienna on Wednesday.
Negotiators from Iran and the so-called P5-plus-one - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are hoping to strike a final deal by June 30. But with less than three weeks to go, differences remain on a number of issues, including mechanisms of controlling implementation of the agreement and possible re-imposing of sanctions on Tehran in case it violates its liabilities under the deal.
The negotiations in Austria’s capital will begin with an expert-level meeting. Iran's senior negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, and EU political director Helga Schmid are expected to coordinate the talks.
A meeting at the level of political directors will take place on June 12.
One of the most divisive issues on the agenda is access to Iranian nuclear facilities for experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said after the latest round of talks between political directors, which finished on June 4, that the sides had not clarified the criteria for inspections of suspicious Iranian facilities by IAEA experts
"We assume that the issue will remain on the agenda right to the end," he said, adding that it was difficult to swiftly resolve the matter. Ryabkov urged to fully comply with the principles featured in the Supplementary Protocol to the Agreement on IAEA Guarantees.
The Russian side believes that negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program could be successfully completed if the sides observed agreements reached in the Swiss city of Lausanne in April.
"There is no obstacle to successful completion of talks on Iran’s nuclear problem if all negotiators stick to the political framework agreed at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Lausanne," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with counterparts from Iran and China in Moscow last week.
Following a negotiating marathon in Switzerland in early April, Iran and the six powers, reached a framework agreement on cutting down Tehran’s nuclear program.
The framework has cleared the way for talks on a comprehensive deal with Iran by June 30 under which it would limit its nuclear activities for at least a decade in exchange for a gradual end to all sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States on Tehran’s energy and financial sectors.