First meeting of final round of Iran's nuclear talks ends with no results

A seven-hour bilateral meeting held in Vienna between Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Deputy EU Foreign Policy Chief Helga Schmidt ended with no deal on Friday night, Al-Araby Al-Jadid online newspaper has said.

The meeting was part of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group comprised of the US, France, Russia, China, the UK and Germany. This round is due to end by 20 July. The meeting was due to resume Saturday morning.

Prior to the meeting, Araghchi told Fars news agency that “there are still several differences regarding a number of issues. There needs to be increased efforts from both sides.”

It has been reported that the differences are regarding the number of centrifuges Iran would retain. However, Araghchi said in a press conference: “What media propagates about the number of centrifuges should have little attention paid to it.”

The meeting, which started on Thursday, should have been the final one. In case an agreement is reached during this round of talks, foreign ministers of the countries involved are going to travel to Vienna to sign a deal. If no agreement is reached, the temporary Geneva deal will be extended.