Obama, Merkel Committed to Reaching Deal With Iran

The White House announced that Obama and Merkel discussed over the telephone the ongoing negotiations with Iran concerning its nuclear program, and reaffirmed their readiness to reach a long-term deal.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed over the telephone the ongoing negotiations with Iran concerning its nuclear program, and reaffirmed their readiness to reach a long-term deal, the White House announced in a statement on Friday.

“They reaffirmed their commitment to achieving a long-term comprehensive deal that fully and verifiably ensures that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful going forward, while noting that Iran must make the decisions necessary to resolve several remaining issues,” the statement said.

The new round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries on Iran’s nuclear program began Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland, and will continue until March 29.

Western nations have long accused Iran of disguising the development of nuclear weapons as a civilian nuclear program that is allegedly aimed at meeting the country's growing energy needs.

Iran and the P5+1 countries, comprising Russia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France plus Germany, have been conducting negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program since November 2013.

The negotiating parties are expected to work out a political framework agreement by the end of March. A comprehensive deal ensuring the peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear activities is set to be reached by July 2015.