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Iran: We’ve agreed on 90% of the issues in the negotiations

March 18, 2015 at 10:57 am

Iran and the US have agreed on 90 per cent of the technical issues regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, an official from Tehran said yesterday.

Iranian state television reported the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, saying: “We have agreed on 90 per cent of the technical issues.”

Yesterday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, resumed talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The meeting came after a first round of negotiations which took place on Monday between the Americans and Iranians and between Tehran and the Europeans.

Following Monday’s meetings, the parties appeared to be in doubt about the chances of reaching an agreement in the coming days.

A senior US official asserted yesterday morning: “We have certainly accomplished progress but there are difficult issues remaining in front of us.” He stressed on the “technology” differences between Iran and the P5+1 countries (Britain, France, China, the United States, Russia and Germany), but he did not go into details.

Another US official said on Monday evening: “Iran has still to take very difficult decisions to calm the remaining major concerns about its nuclear programme.”

When he was asked about the possibility of reaching an agreement by 31 March, he replied: “Frankly, we still do not know whether we will be able to do that.”