Iran Nuclear Talks Resume İn Geneva

Iran and the six major powers group, P5+1, are holding nuclear talks today in Geneva after both sides failed to meet the Nov. 24 deadline in Vienna for a permanent settlement.



The nuclear talks attended by the deputy foreign ministers have begun at the Permanent Mission of the European Union to the UN in Geneva.



The U.S. and Iranian delegation, the latter led by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi held bilateral talks on Monday and Tuesday in Geneva.



The November negotiations in the Austrian capital, Vienna, were supposed to be the final round of talks between Iran and the world powers' group.



However, the deadline for a permanent settlement with Iran was extended until the end of June 2015 with the aim of "finishing the political agreement" by March, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry termed it.



The five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the U.S., U.K., China, France and Russia -- plus Germany, also known as the P5+1 group, believe that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and want Tehran to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.



However, Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes.



"Today Iran has no such 20 percent enriched uranium – zero, none – and they have diluted or converted every ounce that they had and suspended all uranium enrichment above five percent," Kerry had said earlier.



Tehran agreed to limit certain aspects of its controversial nuclear program in exchange for some relief in international sanctions under a deal reached in November, 2013 in Geneva.



Iran will not proceed with uranium enrichment as long as negotiations with the six world powers on a permanent nuclear agreement continue, the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said ahead of the Geneva talks.



"We currently have nearly 20,000 installed centrifuges, some 9,000 of which are operating and another 9,000 centrifuges are being installed, but are not operational. As long as the negotiations are ongoing, we have no intention of activating the 9,000 additional machines," Ali Akbar Salehi said.



British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had said earlier that Iran would have access to around $700 million per month in frozen assets while the nuclear talks continue.



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