Ministers to join Iran nuclear program talks when deal is within reach - Russian diplomat
MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) - Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program may be brought to the ministerial level only at the final stage, when the parties sense that the agreement can truly be achieved, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
"The ministerial level will be considered as a possibility when there is the feeling that the agreement is within reach," Ryabkov told Interfax when asked whether the talks on resolving the Iran nuclear problem could be brought to the ministerial level.
"We don't have a guarantee yet that the agreement can be worked out by November 24. The situation is quite nervous, electricity is in the air, and it smells like a rainstorm, but we are keeping this tempest under control so far," he said.
The negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program should continue without recesses at the level of political directors from November 18 to 24, Ryabkov said.
"The negotiations will continue through all this period [from November 18 to 24], this will be at the standard level, where ministers earlier represented the European Union and Iran and now only Iran, as Catherine Ashton is continuing the negotiations on behalf of the European Union as an EU special coordinator. All the other countries are represented at the level of political directors," he said.
Moscow remains optimistic about the possibility that the agreement could be worked out by November 24, he said.
"This is not simply the desire usual in such a situation to honor the tradition of historical optimism. The essence of the matter has been elaborated so extensively and the approaches toward all the existing problems have been so detailed, I have not seen or had anything so absolutely ready in my entire experience," he said.
The conclusion of an agreement is hindered by the fact that some of the participants have not political made decisions on certain issues, he said.
"The problem is that the main capitals don't have a consensus on whether we agree to this or that or not, or that we don't accept this and propose something else instead - unfortunately, we don't have this," he said.