Iran, G5+1 deputy FMs start talks in Vienna

Deputy foreign ministers from Iran and the six world powers (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) started their talks in Vienna on Tuesday. The talks inaugurated at the hotel of the residence of the seven delegations in the Austrian capital are headed by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi and EU foreign policy deputy chief Helga Schmidt. Today's meetings started by a session which was presided by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the UN headquarters in Vienna. Then Ashton and Zarif sent their deputies to the main meeting to negotiate over a final and comprehensive nuclear deal. The negotiations will continue until Thursday. Nuclear experts from Iran and the Sextet of the world powers had three days of talks in Vienna from Thursday to Saturday afternoon. Speaking after the last session of talks, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Director-General for Political and Legal Affairs, Hamid Baeidinejad who led the Iranian delegation, described the negotiations with the expert teams of the six world powers as "useful". The talks between Tehran and the six world powers are part of efforts to seal a final deal on Iran’s nuclear energy program. Iran and the Group 5+1 representatives had several sessions of talks in Vienna on March 18-19. On November 24, Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent United Nations Security Council members plus Germany) sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the latter's nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of the world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and impose no nuclear-related sanctions on Iran during the six-month period.