Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran and the six world powers will come together for a new round of talks on Tehran's nuclear energy program in Vienna.

Iran and the P5+1 - China, Russia, Britain, France, the United States and Germany - are scheduled to start the third round of their talks in Vienna on April 8.

The talks are part of the efforts to reach a final agreement and fully resolve the decade-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.

The negotiations are slated to last until April 9.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left Tehran for Vienna on April 7 to meet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton ahead of the new round of nuclear talks, IRNA reported.

Zarif, who heads the Iranian negotiation team, will meet Ashton at a dinner banquet in Vienna on April 7.

During the meeting, the heads of the negotiating teams will review the reports of the expert delegations of both sides which wrapped up their latest round of talks in Vienna on April 5, and discuss the agenda for the two-day high-level negotiations.

Zarif and Ashton will also discuss the results of the latest expert-level nuclear talks which were held on April 3-5.

Hamid Ba'eedinejad, the head of Iran's negotiating team at the expert-level talks, described the latest round of nuclear negotiations as "beneficial."

He said the two sides are holding talks within the framework of the final step of the Geneva deal in order to reach a comprehensive solution on different and important technical issues.

The third round of nuclear talks includes the entire remaining issues which will be addressed in the final agreement. The issues include Iran's access to peaceful nuclear technology, trade markets and bank resources, and the nuclear facilities inspection mechanisms.

It should be noted that Iran has added legal advisors to its negotiating team, including former deputy foreign minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia.

The negotiating team also includes deputy foreign ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takh-e-Ravanchi, foreign ministry's director general for political and International Affairs Hamid Ba'eedinejad, and director general for Defensive Affairs at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Amiri.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will head the U.S. delegation in the nuclear negotiations.

Drafting a comprehensive agreement on Iran's nuclear program will begin in May, the Washington Post quotes a senior U.S. official as saying on April 4.

The official also said significant gaps remain between P5+1 and Iran over its nuclear program, but talks that began early this year are "getting down to the serious business."

The two sides reached an interim deal on November 24, 2013, in Geneva to set the stage for the full settlement of the dispute over Iran's nuclear energy program.

Under a six-month interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 which took effect on January 20, the six major powers agreed to give Iran access to $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if the country fulfills the deal's terms which offer sanctions relief in exchange for steps on curbing Iran's nuclear program.

Iran and P5+1 intend to continue their talks to reach a final comprehensive agreement on the issue. The two sides have held two rounds of talks at the political level and three rounds of negotiations at the expert level so far.

Iran and the six world powers held high-level nuclear talks with Iran on March 18-19.