Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The nuclear negotiators from the P5+1 countries and Iran are engaged in intensive talks to draft the text of a final nuclear deal as late June deadline for reaching a comprehensive agreement is fast approaching.

After the technical nuclear negotiations in New York where Iranian official said both sides achieved “the first draft of the whole package”, nuclear negotiators resumed the drafting of a final nuclear agreement in Vienna on May 12, Iranian media reported.

The Iranian delegation is led by Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi, Iranian deputy foreign ministers, while Helga Schmid, top EU envoy represents the P5+1group countries.

During the four days of negotiations, the two sides will be holding simultaneous expert-level and technical talks.

Deputy foreign ministers and political directors from the P5+1 group will also join in the talks to hammer out a final deal on May 15.

Prior to Vienna talks, Araqchi said Iran and the group P5+1 have so far written 20 pages of a final agreement on Iran's nuclear program.

However, there are still many disagreements in some issues between the sides that are crucial to iron out by the end of June.

The major issue of disagreement between the sides is the removal of sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear energy program. While Iran wants all sanctions to be lifted at once - upon signing the final agreement, some of the negotiating sides, especially the United States is in favor of a phased removal of sanctions.

Araqchi noted that one of the most significant issues under discussion in Vienna will be the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.

“All economic and financial sanctions should be terminated on the day that we start to implement the final deal,” Araqchi said, noting that there will be no “phased” sanctions removal, Press TV reported.

While noting that there are still many gaps between the sides, Araqchi, however, said it is possible for Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers to secure a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear program even before the July 1 deadline.

Noting that negotiators are trying to reach “a single agreed text", Araqchi considered that the sides can do that even before the deadline.

"Now, we have a written text, although we still have lots of brackets, which represent the differences we have,” he added.

He further noted that the talks in Vienna are aimed at reducing the "number of brackets" and "cleaning" the text as much as possible.

On May 7, experts from Iran and the P5+1 ended their latest round of talks in New York, which were held on the sidelines of the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the NPT. Furthermore, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif held important talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.

Iran and the P5+1 group reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

They agreed to finalize a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by the end of June.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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