Iran says "distrust" overwhelming nuclear talks

A sense of distrust is prevailing in the ongoing nuclear talks between Iran and the world powers, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said on Saturday.

"This is a fact, we never trust the other party, and they do not trust us either," Araqchi was quoted by state IRIB TV reported as saying.

Therefore, the possible deal is being arranged in a way that in case a party felt a violation of commitments by the other side, it could return to the situation before the deal, he said before heading back to Tehran after a 3-day deputy-level talks in Vienna on a preliminary draft for a potential deal by June 30.

Araqchi said the recent round talks were very difficult and complicated. "It is advancing very slowly," he said.

At the start of the just finished talks on Thursday, the Iranian negotiator said his country will not accept inspections of its military sites, responding to the West's demands over access to some of the Islamic republic's military sites.

"In spite of significant progresses in preparing the draft deal, there is still hard work to do," Araqchi added.

He also said Iran and world powers have made "important progress" on the final text of a nuclear deal.

On Nov. 24, 2013, world powers and Iran reached an interim agreement on Iran's nuclear program, which demanded Iran suspend some sensitive nuclear activities in exchange for limited sanction relief to buy time for diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue.

Negotiators agreed on a framework of understanding early April and set June 30 as a self-imposed deadline for reaching a final deal after missing the previous two deadlines in June and November last year.

Iran's nuclear program has long been a subject of concern for western powers, who believe it to be geared toward developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists it has an inalienable right to develop its civilian atomic plan. Endit