America
‘Difficult issues’ remain in n-talks with Iran: Kerry
Vienna, July 11
There are still "difficult issues" to be resolved in nuclear talks with
Iran, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday.
The top
US diplomat made the remarks on a Twitter post after meeting with his
Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, for 90 minutes on Saturday.
Zarif
and Kerry resumed talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in a bid to
iron out the remaining disagreements over a final deal on Tehran’s
nuclear programme.
The top diplomats met as talks entered their 15th straight day in Vienna.
Kerry
told reporters on Friday progress has been made in negotiations between
Iran and the P5+1 group of countries. “I think we have resolved some of
the things that were outstanding and we've made some progress."
Zarif,
the Iranian foreign minister, told Press TV on Friday that the
negotiations would continue through the weekend after two self-imposed
deadlines lapsed.
"We're making progress. It seems we are staying here for the weekend. We're working," he said, adding, "We're not there yet".
This
round of negotiations in Vienna, which has capped two years of
international talks, was seen as the last push to resolve the West’s
13-year nuclear standoff with Iran.
France's Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius arrived back in the Austrian capital Saturday to rejoin
his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
British Foreign
Secretary Philip Hammond is expected back too, but it is still unclear
when the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers would return for the
talks.
Hammond earlier echoed Kerry's assessment of the nuclear
talks. "There are still some issues that have to be resolved," he said
on Friday.