Kerry, Zarif Launch Key Nuclear Talks in Geneva

Local Editor

A month out from a nuclear deal deadline, the top US and Iranian diplomats gathered in Geneva in an effort to bridge differences over how quickly to ease economic sanctions on Tehran and how significantly the Iranians must open up military facilities to international inspections.

The talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry were likely to extend into Sunday, a negotiating round to pin down a final deal over Tehran's nuclear program.

Asked about completing the full accord by June 30, Zarif said Saturday, "We will try."

Various Iranian officials, including the Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, have publicly vowed to limit access to or even block monitors from sensitive military sites and nuclear scientists suspected of previous involvement in covert nuclear weapons efforts.

The unresolved issues included the pace at which the sanctions on Tehran would be lifted.

And exactly how rapidly the sanctions on Iran's financial, oil and commercial sectors would come off in the first place lingers as a sore point between Washington and Tehran.

However, Iran insists it is solely interested in peaceful energy, medical and research purposes, though many governments around the world suspect it of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions.

moreover, the US estimates the Iranians are currently less than three months away from assembling enough nuclear material for a bomb if they chose to covertly develop one.

Accordingly, joining Kerry and Zarif in Switzerland was US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz; American nuclear negotiator Wendy Sherman and her Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi attended, too. European Union negotiator Helga Schmid sat in as well.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team