GENEVA, (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif held intensive talks on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme yesterday, returning for an evening session before handing off to their deputies, officials said.
Iran and six world powers have renewed their quest for an elusive nuclear deal – seen as crucial to reducing the risk of a wider Middle East war – after negotiators failed for the second time in November to meet a self-imposed deadline.
Kerry and Zarif “had substantive meetings for approximately five hours today and they discussed a broad range of issues with a small group of staff from each side,” a senior State Department official said.
But Kerry later unexpectedly returned to the Geneva lakeside hotel for a third meeting lasting some 90 minutes with Zarif after briefing senior U.S. negotiators ahead of their technical-level talks scheduled with Iranian counterparts for Thursday in the Swiss city.
“Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Zarif reconvened this evening to continue discussion about the nuclear negotiations in advance of the start of the next round of talks tomorrow,” a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.
Wendy Sherman, acting deputy secretary of state, and deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi are to lead their delegations at Thursday’s talks, to be followed on Sunday Jan. 18 by wider talks between Iran and major world powers.
As the two sides met in Geneva, Iran’s judiciary indicted American journalist Jason Rezaian and sent his case to be tried in a hardline Revolutionary Court, the official IRNA news agency reported late on Wednesday. Earlier Zarif said that serious dialogue with the West would be easier if it respected Muslim sensitivities, ruffled by the latest Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
Speaking to reporters before talks began, Zarif said the meeting would help gauge whether both sides were ready to advance toward a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
