Iran’s negotiating team headed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and accompanied by deputies Seyed Abbas Araghchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi, director general of Foreign Ministry’s political and international security affairs Hamid Baeidinejad, FM’s spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, and some other senior officials arrived in Muscat on Sunday, Nov. 9, to hold trilateral meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry and former EU Foreign Policy Chief and EU top negotiator Catherine Ashton on Iran’s nuclear program.
Tuesday's talks between Iran's nuclear negotiating team and officials from the G5+1 - the US, France, Britain, Russia and China, plus Germany - started at 07:45 GMT.
Araghchi asserted that although no agreement was reached, the negotiations in Oman were progressing seriously, and the involved parties were all fully focused on solutions and issues had been explicitly specified.
Araghchi expressed hope toward reaching an agreement by Nov. 24 and said, “all parties are serious about the talks and we intend to hold as many meetings as needed by the deadline.”
The US State Department said the head-to-head meetings - more than 10 hours across two days - proved "tough, direct and serious", adding that "there is still time" for progress.
Although neither side has expressed a definitive opinion on the progress of the Muscat negotiations or the lack thereof, German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday, Nov. 11, that the negotiations have reached a point where he is ‘optimistic’ about the results.
“We have never been this close to an agreement,” said Steinmeier, “this point is either the point of victory or defeat."
The German FM also warned that such opportunity would not present itself any time soon.
Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi gave reporters an upbeat assessment of the talks on Tuesday. "By the level of commitment all parties are showing, we feel comfortable," he said. "There is no going back ... I feel that all parties are positively willing to reach an agreement."
He also stressed that the negotiating parties should take hold of the present opportunity and not let it pass.
“Many issues have been agreed upon in the Muscat talks,” said Yusuf bin Alawi, “but of course there are still some gaps and difficulties remaining which need to get resolved.
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov was also optimistic about an agreement before Nov. 24. He stressed that not reaching such an agreement before the deadline would be ‘the worst possible result’.
Sergei Ryabkov maintained that the complete termination of sanctions against Iran must be accepted by all the participating parties and this is the ‘only option’. While noting the slow progress of the negotiations, Ryabkov asserted that an ‘agreement on the remaining issues’ is possible.
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