Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif[/caption]TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) will hold an expert-level meeting in the next two weeks.
"The Iranian and G5+1 experts will discuss issues related to their differences in the negotiation within next one or two weeks," Zarif, also Iran's top negotiator in talks with the world power, told Iranian reporters in Vienna on Thursday.
He underlined that very serious negotiations between Iran and G5+1 are still remaining.
The Iranian foreign minister, meantime, noted that he will hold talks with his American counterpart John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in less than a month.
Zarif noted that the venue of the expert-level and trial-lateral talks are not known as yet, but it will not be in Vienna.
Iran and the six major world powers (the US, Russia, France, Britain and China plus Germany) started a fresh round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna this morning local time.
Zarif and Ashton are presiding over the 8th round of the talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in the Austrian capital.
On Tuesday, Zarif said Tehran and the G5+1 have not yet reached an agreement over their main bones of contention.
"There are outstanding differences, but it doesnt mean that these differences cannot be resolved," Zarif told reporters after meeting Ashton in Vienna.
"Of course, this doesnt mean that a solution cannot be achieved. Everyone believes that this issue can be settled since actually, Iran's nuclear program is a peaceful program and a reality on the ground," he added.
Stressing that working on solutions is necessary, he said that during the Tuesday talks among the Iranian, EU and the US officials, the participants proposed different solutions in a series of serious discussions, but they have not yet reached a common conclusion and "I believe that in case there is a political will, reaching a solution will be possible".
He noted that as long as the two sides dont agree on all issues, no agreement can be said to have been obtained on any single issue.
"Yet, we still have time to reach an agreement," the Iranian lead negotiator concluded.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, accompanied by his deputies Seyed Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi, arrived in Vienna on Tuesday morning.
Upon arrival, the Iranian, American and EU negotiators had two days of trilateral talks in Vienna on October 14-15.
The two sides held six rounds of negotiations in Vienna to reach a comprehensive deal after they inked an interim agreement in Geneva on November 24.
The 7th round of talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 was held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting last month.
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.
By Fars News Agency
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