MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – Foreign ministers of the P5+1 group of nations negotiating with Iran on its controversial nuclear program may meet on the sidelines of the forthcoming UN General Assembly in New York, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti in an interview Tuesday.
“It is possible that a meeting of the P5+1 ministers with the Iranian foreign minister will be needed. There are reasons for contacts in this format,” Ryabkov said.
He said the ministerial meeting depended on the new round of nuclear negotiations between political directors of Iran and the 5+1 group – Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany – in New York on September 18-22.
"I think that if the meeting starts to produce some results, then a full-format “six plus one” meeting with Iran will take place,” he said.
The upcoming talks in New York may yield groundbreaking results in reaching a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, according to the Russian official.
“The New York negotiations could be a watershed moment, if you ask me, a certain frontier, after which specific agreements will be reached promptly. Let’s hope for this. Necessary preconditions for it have been created,” Ryabkov said.
The international mediators and Iran have to demonstrate maximum political will and focus on the result during the talks in New York, the Russian deputy foreign minister underlined.
On November 24, 2013, an action plan was adopted in Geneva, according to which Iran and the so-called P5+1 international mediation group had to reach an agreement that would guarantee the peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions previously imposed on Iran.
The document has to be signed within a year of the Geneva Accord, which gives the parties until November 24, 2014, to reach a final agreement.
