The Foreign Ministers of Six major world powers -US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany are converging in Geneva to give a push to an interim deal over Iran’s nuclear program.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in Geneva and his counterparts from France, Britain, Germany, China, and the United States will be arriving on Saturday for the talks.
Ahead of the high profile visits, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Washington is open to Iran having a peaceful nuclear program but doesn’t recognize that any country has a right to enrich uranium.
Hence negotiations are on to reconcile these two positions. he move comes close on the heels of reports that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made significant progress on core issues.
The two sides have maintained that differences persist over Iran’s insistence on its right to enrich uranium, shutdown of its Arak heavy water reactor and the extent of the relief from sanctions.
Negotiations are on to reconcile the differences.
The sanctions relief being offered include releasing Iran’s funds frozen in foreign bank accounts and allowing trade in metals, petrochemicals, and aircraft parts.
Iran has been insisting on lifting of oil sale sanctions and banking and financial restrictions in exchange for scaling down its nuclear program.