[caption id="attachment_101245" align="alignright" width="227"] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif[/caption]
Iran’s foreign minister says he has not discussed the crisis in Iraq with the US deputy secretary of state, stressing that negotiations have focused only on the Iranian nuclear energy program.
Mohammad Javad Zarif said he negotiated with William Burns only the nuclear issue.

The Iranian foreign minister made the remarks in a press conference after a trilateral meeting with Burns and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Monday.

Zarif also said the crisis in Iraq would not be discussed during Iran’s negotiations with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain - plus Germany in Vienna.

Some reports had suggested that Iran and the US may discuss the Iraq crisis during their nuclear talks in Vienna.

Takfiri militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have recently been carrying out acts of terror in Iraq, taking over a number of cities and committing atrocities against the people.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi, who is a member of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, said the meeting with Burns was fruitful.

He also said that Zarif and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano are scheduled to hold talks on Tuesday.

Iran and the P5+1 group will begin the fifth round of nuclear negotiations under the administration of President Hassan Rouhani in Vienna on Tuesday.

Araqchi added that Iran will also hold bilateral talks with Russia and China on the same day.

By Press TV

 

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