VIENNA, April 07. /ITAR-TASS/. The P5+1 group (five permanent representatives of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) and Iran have time and an opportunity to reach a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue by July 20, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ITAR-TASS on Monday, April 7.

“These spring months are key months as there is still time. And [the parties] can come to agreement in time, but this will require additional efforts,” he said. Ryabkov said the negotiation schedule was quite tight. “We [political directors] meet once a month. I think we can keep it this way in the coming period,” he added. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, were scheduled to meet on Monday evening.

“Zarif has arrived in the Austrian capital to attend the next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1,” a source in the Iranian delegation told ITAR-TASS. The next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group at the level of political directors will begin in Vienna on April 8. The interim nuclear deal made on November 24, 2013, called for taking the first step of reciprocal actions to prove good faith in a six-month period to be followed by negotiations for a comprehensive agreement, according to which the Western governments will acknowledge the Iranian nuclear programme as civilian.

The deal was called the first step to be followed by a comprehensive agreement, which, on the one hand, should resolve the international community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear programme and, on the other hand, remove economic sanctions that slow down Iran’s economic development. The agreement reached by and between Iran and the P5+1 (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) in Geneva last year became effective on January 20.