Vienna: After days of intense negotiations here, Iran and the six world powers have reached a deal intended to limit Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, media reported on Tuesday.
Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers reached a “good deal” here on Tehran’s nuclear programme, an Iranian official close to the negotiating team told Press TV.
The result of the talks between Iran and the six countries — China, Britain, France, Russia, the US and Germany — would be formally announced soon, Xinhua quoted an European Union (EU) spokesman as saying.
The nuclear talks have been aimed at reaching a final deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting economic sanctions imposed almost a decade ago in accordance with a UN resolution after Iran refused to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
Iran for long has said that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes. The West fears it could be used to build an atomic bomb.
A movement toward a deal has been marked by years of tough negotiations. The deal was meant to impose long-term, verifiable limits on nuclear programmes that Tehran could modify to produce weapons. Iran, in return, would get tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
On Tuesday, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif met his German, French and British counterparts.
A formal announcement about the deal was expected after a final meeting between all the negotiators. The foreign ministers of Iran and the six powers will meet at the UN centre here, a spokeswoman for the European Union said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini are expected to read a joint statement, diplomats familiar with the talks said.
Diplomats said most of the nuts and bolts of implementing the deal have been agreed upon. But over the past week, issues that were previously on the back-burner have led to new disputes.
Among them was Iran’s demand for a lifting of a UN arms embargo and its insistence that any UN Security Council resolution approving the nuclear deal be written in a way that stops describing Iran’s nuclear activities as illegal.