Zarif says 'many issues' remain as nuclear talks resume
Despite the president's proclaimed optimism, Iran's foreign minister has said that many issues still remain in the nuclear talks, which resume today.
A day after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that he was a certain of an eventual final nuclear deal with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1), Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said there are still “many issues” to be resolved.
The Iranian negotiating team led by Zarif left for Vienna this morning, Oct. 14, to resume the nuclear talks. He will hold meetings with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and US Secretary of State John Kerry. Before departing, however, Zarif appeared to have scaled down expectations after Rouhani expressed optimism to the Iranian media the night before.
“Reaching an agreement in this round is very unlikely because there are issues that still remain that need to be resolved. There are many issues,” Zarif told reporters according to IRIB News.
Zarif confirmed Rouhani’s statement that there is a “general understanding,” but said that the last few meetings have been over the details, such as enrichment and the method and timeline of removing sanctions, which he described as “important and vital.”
