GENEVA, Oct 16 - Six world powers andIranwill likely meet again in Geneva in several weeks time to try to hammer out details of an emerging agreement aimed at ending the standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Western diplomats said on Wednesday.They spoke as the two sides convened at midday for the scheduled second day of their first high-level negotiations for six months - and the first since the election of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani raised hopes of a breakthrough.
"Are we there yet? No, but we need to keep talking," a Western diplomat told Reuters as talks resumed betweenIranand the five permanent U.N. Security Council members - United States, Britain,France,RussiaandChina- plusGermany.
Another Western diplomat said "we'll probably be back here in a few weeks" for a second round of negotiations in Geneva betweenIranand the six powers.
The diplomats were hesitant to provide many details about the negotiations due to sensitivities involved, both in Tehran, where conservative hardliners are skeptical about making deals that could curtail the nuclear program, and in Washington, where hawks are reluctant to support swift sanctions relief.
But Iran, diplomats said, has made much more concrete proposals than at previous meetings, to the point that the Iranians are concerned about the specifics being made public before they have had a chance to sell them back in Tehran.
In turn, diplomats said, the six powers do not want to undermine Rouhani's quest for a deal to thaw Iran's icy relations with the West and deliver it from sanctions that have hammered the Islamic Republic's oil-basedeconomy.
By Reuters
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