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Iran, G5+1 to reach agreement on N. issue, says Zarif

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun 23 Feb 2014 - 15:13

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that the country can reach an agreement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany on Iranian nuclear issue.

'We can reach an agreement on nuclear issue during the talks with G5+1,' Zarif said in a press conference with his visiting Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders in Tehran on Sunday.

He also said lack of Iranians' confidence to the west is due to its performance regarding Iran throughout history, and said, 'The confidence should be returned to Iran again and measures which damage Iranians' trust should be avoided.'

On Thursday, Iran and six world powers agreed on an agenda for negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program and will meet again next month in Vienna, a senior Iranian official said after two days of talks in the Austrian capital.

This indicates an early step forward in the elusive search for a settlement of the decade-old dispute, even though the sides remain far apart on how to resolve it and both Iran and the United States have publicly stated it may not be possible to reach a final agreement.

Negotiators from Iran and the Sextet of the world powers met in Vienna on February 18-20 to hammer out an agenda for talks on a final deal to the standoff over Tehran's nuclear activities.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, 'The involved parties have agreed on an agenda and a framework and the next round of talks will be in the second half of March in Vienna.'

A senior US state department official earlier said about the second day of talks on Wednesday, 'Today's discussions, which covered both process and substance, were constructive and useful.'

Zarif, who headed the Iranian delegation, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who presided over the delegations of the six world powers, ended their last round of talks on Thursday.

The negotiations will probably extend at least over several months, and could help defuse years of hostility between energy-exporting Iran and the West, ease the danger of a new war in the Middle-East, transform the regional power balance and open up major business opportunities for western firms.

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