Attaining Final Deal by Nov. 24 Difficult

11 November 2014 | 20:05 Code : 1940715 Latest Headlines

(FNA)- Reaching a final nuclear deal with the world powers by the November 24 deadline is difficult, senior Iranian negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said on Monday.

"Since all issues are interwoven, this makes the job difficult and obtaining results by November 24 is really a tough job; our time is really limited, yet we are not disappointed," Araqchi told reporters in Masqat where representatives of Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) started another round of multilateral talks on Tuesday morning.

Araqchi, who was speaking after two days of talks among the top diplomats of Iran, the US and the EU, underlined that negotiations are intensely underway on the volume of Iran's nuclear reserves, installations, the heavy water reactor in Arak and the enrichment facilities in Fordo.

Iran and the six major world powers have already held 8 rounds of nuclear negotiations after inking an interim agreement in Geneva in 2013, and have less than three weeks time to strike a final deal before the November 24 deadline.

Tehran and the six powers have already held seven rounds of talks in Vienna, and one more round in New York and on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. They started their 9th round of negotiations in Oman this morning.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, his US counterpart John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had earlier had two days of trilateral talks in Masqat on Sunday and Monday.

The Geneva agreement took effect on January 20 and expired six months later on July 20. In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key issues.

tags: november 24