TEHRAN – A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator says Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) have started drafting the text of mechanisms related to the removal of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.

Speaking to Press TV following meetings with representatives of the 5+1 group in Vienna on Friday, Abbas Araqchi said the U.S. negotiating delegation gave the Iranian nuclear team “very useful” explanations regarding the removal of sanctions.

Iran has been insisting that all sanctions should be immediately lifted once a final nuclear agreement is signed.

“This time we only worked on the question of sanctions but the fact is that we had worked on other issues some months ago; I think in July last year. We have already [drafted] some parts of our text. We had already done some drafting in the past, but then it was stopped because we had no solution on major issues. Now we have solutions in almost all issues. What we have to do is to write down these solutions in form of a draft of an agreement. We have also started now from the sanctions and we will go to other issues next time,” the nuclear negotiator said.

He added that the U.S. and European negotiators cleared up some ambiguities regarding the lifting of sanctions.

Noting that drafting has begun on the issue of sanctions, Araqchi said the U.S. team “gave us explanations [about removal of sanctions] which were very useful.”

He said there were also positive talks about a resolution passed by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will be discussed on the Senate floor next week and is intended to give U.S. Congress a final say over a possible nuclear accord with Iran.

“Some remarks by officials in the U.S. created lots of question marks, and also the act by Congress to introduce a new bill … [which] actually added to this complicated situation. We had very good discussions specially with the U.S. delegation asking them to clarify their position regarding sanctions, to clarify what is going on in Congress and I think the explanations by the U.S. delegation was very useful,” he said.

Araqchi noted that the negotiating sides have made steady, but slow progress.


He added, “We are working on a dispute settlement mechanism for possibility of violations.”

“We are working on a dispute settlement mechanism the details of which are still under consideration. We do attach great importance to the possibility of violation of commitments by either side, especially from the other side, who has unfortunately not a good record in implementing its commitments. We will certainly have a dispute settlement mechanism according to which if any violation would occur, if any misunderstanding emerges, we will go to that mechanism and try to resolve that before we come to a situation to terminate the agreement,” explained Araqchi, the deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs.

Araqchi added, “Now we have started to work on the draft of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Obviously at the beginning we need to talk about the frameworks and format of such a draft. We have made some progress but very slowly… the focus of our discussions this time was on the question of sanctions and we tried to start drafting by in fact the question of sanctions and the related issues.”

“It is a very difficult job to reach a realistic agreement by June but we are hopeful. We think if all parties are serious which they are we can conclude these discussions and talks before the end of June. This is quite possible and we think the agreement is at reach, but of course at any time … unpredictable events may cause problems in the way, but if we go in a normal pace we can finish the job,” he concluded.

MD/P