"There is still a very significant gap between the parties, we are all going to go away and have further technical discussions with our experts. We will resume again over the course of the weekend," he said.
"We had a series of very useful discussions," Hammond went on, adding that “these are very complex issues."
The final round of Iran nuclear talks in Vienna between the P5+1 Group and Tehran continued into Friday.
Following the Friday meetings, Hammond told journalists that Iran's negotiators showed a clear interest in settling the decade-long dispute on its nuclear ambitions. He called the discussion positive, but stressed there was still a "long way to go" if the parties wanted to close the deal before the November 24 deadline.
According to media reports, US, French and British foreign policy chiefs are expected to leave Vienna on Friday, while the Iranian top diplomat may fly back to Tehran to explore the existing possibilities in the talks with the country's leadership.
Iranian nuclear ambitions have been a concern for many countries, which prompted the UN Security Council, the European Union, the United States and a number of other nations to target it for sanctions. Iran wants to see all restrictions against it cancelled as soon as the final deal is signed, while Washington has so far only conceded to scaling them down over an extended period of time.
