Officials of Iran, western powers hold new talks on nuclear issue

 Senior officials representing Iran and six major powers on Tuesday started a meeting designed to push for a final deal regarding Iran's thorny nuclear issue.
The meeting, comprising senior officials of Iran and "P5+1" group (the US, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany), is designed to follow up on results of the closed-door meetings that grouped US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mhammad Javad Zarif and the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, over the past two days.
An Omani diplomatic source indicated to KUNA that the new round of the Omani-hosted talks was aimed at reaching a final deal on the issue or delaying it till November 18, when the negotiations among the parties would resume.
The officials, during the Oman-hosted talks, are discussing "detailed topics obstructing course of the discussions," ahead of the final agreement, the source said, adding that the three parties thrashed out some differences on uranium enrichment, but the major hurdle remained Tehran's demand for total lift of the international sanctions, while the Western side favored their gradual removal.
Oman had played a mediation role in talks at this level in middle of 2014.