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1st LD Writethru: Iran nuclear talks in home stretch

Xinhua, March 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Foreign ministers from major world powers and Iran Tuesday quickened up nuclear talks to further narrow gaps on the remaining disagreements, as the lengthy negotiations entered the final day of deadline.

Under the extension of the Geneva 2013 Joint Plan of Action, P5+1 countries, namely the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain plus Germany, and Iran are committed to reaching a political agreement by March 31, and then taking an additional three months to complete any technical annexes by June 30.

With the self-posing deadline of Tuesday midnight being only hours away, top diplomats of P5+1 and Iran kicked off a ministerial meeting on early Tuesday morning, followed by a coordination meetings within foreign ministers from P5+1 countries.

In addition, U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also held bilateral coordination meetings.

Iran state news agency IRNA quoted an Iranian source close to the negotiations as saying "the sides insisted on getting into a result during the negotiations, albeit it will extend till night."

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi on Tuesday said on plan for extending the nuclear talks, which have already been extended twice.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who left for Moscow and absent from Monday afternoon's ministerial-level talks, will rejoin the nuclear talks on Tuesday afternoon.

"The chances are high. They are probably not 100 percent but you can never be 100 percent certain of anything," he told a press conference in Moscow before heading to Lausanne, adding the prospects of the ongoing negotiations are good.

Analyst said Lavrov's return is a indication of a pending deal or at least a decision.

"All of us said that the goal was to reach a political understanding by the end of March and use the last three months to finish the annexes and all the technical work," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday.

However, she said the United States and Iran have not reached any agreement on the stockpile, one of the outstanding issues that remain to be solved, adding efforts have been made for some breakthrough before the deadline.

A delegate of the Iranian nuclear negotiations team said there is the possibility of working out an agreement on basic issues, Iranian media reported Tuesday. Endit