Iran, US open 2nd day of N. talks in Switzerland

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Tue 17 Mar 2015 - 11:19

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iran and the United States began the second day of the sensitive talks 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 and US Secretary of State John Kerry opened discussions in Lausanne on Tuesday.

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 Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman are also present in the meeting.

Negotiations about the Iranian nuclear issue entered a critical phase on 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 G5+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 G5+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.

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