MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The political directors of the P5+1 group of nations (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program may meet in early November, a senior Russian diplomat said Monday.
“There is no clarity. I think it will take place in the first decade of November, but so far it is just ideas and nothing more than preliminary estimates,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
Last week, the top diplomats of the United States, European Union and Iran met in Vienna to discuss Tehran's nuclear program.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also held a bilateral meeting, which was later described as "useful", however Zarif said that the differences still remain.
Israel and the West are concerned with Iranian nuclear program, questioning its peaceful nature and saying Tehran tries to build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies all allegations and says that the country's nuclear program is aimed purely at achieving peaceful goals.
At a meeting held in November 2013 in Geneva, Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators agreed to reach a long-term agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue by July 2014, but the deadline was later postponed to November 24, 2014.
As the deadline drew closer and no agreement has been reached yet, there has been a lot of speculation in the media that the deadline could be postponed, however no officials confirmed this.
In September, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani once again confirmed Tehran's readiness to secure a historic nuclear deal with the West, but underscored that the country was not going to give up its peaceful nuclear program.
