Iraqchi: Major Disputes in Negotiations Should Be Decided at Ministerial Level

As the deadline for reaching a final nuclear agreement approaches on July 1, Abbas Iraqchi, a senior member of Iran's negotiating team, stated that the Iranian delegation will depart for Vienna on Tuesday evening and will remain there until the end of negotiations. In an interview on June 16, Iraqchi noted, "We will go to the negotiation site tonight and will be stationed there until July 1 to finalize our work and reduce the parentheses in the text that indicate disagreements." With the rise of Hassan Rouhani's government and efforts to resolve the Islamic Republic's nuclear dispute, negotiations between Iran and the 1+5 group resumed. Initially, in 2013, the two sides reached a temporary agreement in Geneva, under which some of Iran's sanctions were suspended in exchange for Iran halting certain nuclear activities. According to this agreement, negotiations for a comprehensive final agreement were to be conducted within seven months. In April of this year, the two sides outlined the general framework for such an agreement in Lausanne. The final agreement on Iran's nuclear program is expected to be ready for signing by July 1. Regarding how to resolve remaining disputes by the set deadline, Iraqchi stated, "Some key and fundamental disagreements will likely remain until the last days for the ministers to join and decisions to be made at their level." He added, "We have set July 1 as the end of negotiations, but it is not the case that we will sacrifice a good and desirable agreement for this date; if necessary, it may extend a few days beyond or conclude earlier; these are not the essence of the matter." However, this senior Foreign Ministry official identified one of the most important remaining parentheses in the comprehensive agreement text as the 'simultaneity' of lifting sanctions and Iran's actions. This senior member of Iran's negotiating team further stated, "There is an issue of simultaneity that we are still examining, and one of the very important parentheses that remains open is this point that what we need to prepare in terms of arrangements or technical prerequisites takes somewhat more time compared to what they need to prepare." He emphasized, "We are examining how to synchronize these two; there are proposals and ideas, and I think ultimately reassuring solutions for both sides will be found so that when the day of implementing the agreement arrives, everything is executed in a reasonable manner." Abbas Iraqchi also mentioned, "Austria, as the current host of the nuclear negotiations, has assured us that it will strictly observe safety principles in the negotiations." The cybersecurity company Kaspersky had previously announced that a spying computer virus was found in three hotels hosting the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 1+5 group, which many experts believe is being used by Israeli spies. Following this news, Iran's embassies in Vienna and Bern sent separate official notes to the foreign ministries of Austria and Switzerland, expressing concern about the security of the venues for Iran's nuclear negotiations and requesting these governments to provide the results of investigations in this regard.