Iran, powers to meet on details of final nuclear deal

Xinhua, April 16, 2015

A fresh round of nuclear meeting between Iran and the world powers will be held next week to discuss the details of a possible comprehensive nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Wednesday.

It is possible that the deputy-level and expert-level meetings will be held next Wednesday, she said, adding that however, the venue has not been decide on yet.

In the next meeting, representatives from Iran and the world powers will bring with themselves preliminary drafts to work on, she said, adding that in the drafts there are numerous blank spaces as well as bracketed words or phrases which require discussions.

Afkham said that Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif will also attend a meeting on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York on April 27.

He may have a meeting with the foreign ministers of P5+1 group, namely the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia plus Germany, on the sidelines of NPT conference to discuss the latest developments on Iran's nuclear issue, she added.

A delegation of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is a UN body to confirm peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities, arrived in Tehran Wednesday to hold talks with Iranian officials on the remaining issues of the nuclear program.

The delegation, led by Tero Varjoranta, the IAEA deputy director general and head of the department of safeguards, will hold one-day technical negotiations with the relevant Iranian officials within the framework of implementation of the Framework for Cooperation, said the Press TV.

The negotiations will focus on the two issues of alleged explosives testing at a site in the western city of Marivan and neutron calculations, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Tuesday.

Under an interim deal inked between Iran and the world's major countries in November 2013, Tehran suspended certain nuclear activities in return for limited easing of sanctions, as all sides continue working toward a comprehensive deal.

The latest report by the UN nuclear watchdog said that the IAEA had yet to receive information from Tehran on two outstanding issues related to the alleged nuclear bomb research, the so-called "possible military dimensions," which Iran denies.

The P5+1 group is set to resume talks with Iran soon over a final deal after reaching a framework pact early this month, and the U.S. President Barack Obama administration has repeated opposition to any interference in the negotiations.