Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs Abbas Araghchi announced on Friday the failure of the fourth round of talks with the P5+1 over his country’s nuclear programme.
The talks, which continued for three days, finished on Friday. They were held in Vienna and aimed at reaching a final agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme.
EU chief of foreign affairs Catherine Ashton headed the P5+1 group and the Iranian foreign minister Mohamed Javad Zarif headed his country’s delegation.
“This is not disappointing and it does not mean failure,” Araghchi said, “talks are still ongoing.” He said that the aim of the fourth round of talks was to reach a final agreement on the issue.
He said that both sides offered “painful concessions,” but more time is needed to reach an agreement. He did not specify a time for the upcoming talks. Officials in the talks said they would not speak to a press conference about the details of their discussions.
Iran and the P5+1 group reached a six-month agreement last November that stipulates limiting nuclear activities in Tehran in return for a partial lifting of sanctions, including releasing frozen money.