Speaking to reporters in Vienna on Friday evening, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and top negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, described the process of drafting the final deal as “very slow”.
His comments came after a three-day round of talks in Vienna with the purpose of drafting the text of the comprehensive accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“Over the past three days, the work on drafting the main text and its appendices went on at two political and expert levels. The expert sessions were simultaneously held on two spheres, the sanctions and the nuclear issues,” Araqchi added.
“Due to the wide variety and complexity of the topics, the progress in drafting is very slow,” he explained.
During the past three days, Araqchi and his colleague Majid Takht Ravanchi held a series of meetings with European Union Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Schmidt.
The EU coordinates diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, France, US, Britain, and Germany).
Iran and the six powers are in talks to hammer out a lasting accord that would end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.
On April 2, the two sides reached a framework nuclear agreement in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final deal until the end of June.