Iran, G5+1 to Resume Talks in New York Thursday

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) will resume negotiations over a final deal on Tehran's nuclear program in New York on September 18, senior Iranian negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi announced on Sunday.

"The official meeting of Iran and G5+1 will be held in New York on Thursday evening," Araqchi, also Iran's Deputy Foreign minister for legal and international affairs, told reporters on Sunday.

Araqchi said Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will have a working lunch on Wednesday, adding that the two will preside over the multilateral negotiations on Thursday.

"The Iranian team will leave for New York on Tuesday," said the deputy lead negotiator, adding that the Iranian delegation will have bilateral meetings with the G5+1 members on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.

"At these (bilateral) meetings, decisions will be made on how to proceed with the (multilateral) negotiations and the ministerial-level meeting," Araqchi concluded.

On September 1, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the process of the ongoing nuclear talks.

After his negotiations with Ashton, the Iranian foreign minister said that he is optimistic that the issues related to the Iranian nuclear technology could be resolved within the time framework of the November 24 deadline.

Iran and the six world powers are currently in talks to work out a lasting accord aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear activities.

Last November, the two sides signed an interim deal in Geneva, which 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.