London, April 1, IRNA - Britain�s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has said negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks in Switzerland have reached �a broad framework of understanding�, but that details still have to be agreed.




Hammond was speaking after the negotiations missed a midnight deadline to produce a preliminary accord on the main issues in dispute in Iran�s nuclear program. After breaking off in the early hours of the morning, talks among foreign ministers and senior diplomats resumed on Wednesday.

�I think we have a broad framework of understanding but there are still some key issues that have to be worked through,� the foreign secretary told a group of British broadcasters.

�Some of them are quite detailed and technical so there is still quite a lot of work to do, but we are on it now and we�ll keep going at it.�

He added: �We have made significant progress over the last few days but it has been slow going. We decided to break last night because some of the staff had been working through the previous night. We wanted people to be fresh as we tackle the last few issues that remain.

�We are now working on them this morning. I�m optimistic that we will make further progress this morning, but it does mean the Iranians being willing to meet us where there are still issues to deal with. Fingers crossed and we�ll hope to get there during the course of the day.�

Iran�s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, predicted there would a joint press statement tonight. But he added: �We are in the overtime but the contents are more important for us than the time...We have had good progress, especially on Tuesday, but until we have resolved all issues, we can�t say we have a resolution.�

Over the course of the night, three of the seven foreign ministers at the talks � Wang Yi of China, Sergei Lavrov of Russia, and Laurent Fabius of France left the talks to fly back to their capitals, leaving senior diplomats to lead their delegations.

Hammond, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, stayed behind for a seventh day of talks in the Swiss lakeside town.


By IRNA