An Iranian deputy foreign minister says he may hold a trilateral meeting with senior officials from the United States and European Union in Geneva.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that he might hold talks with US Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and Helga Schmid, the deputy of EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton.
The meeting will focus on remaining issues related to implementing the landmark Geneva deal between Tehran and the six world powers, he said.
On Tuesday, Araqchi announced that he would hold two days of bilateral talks with Schmid in Geneva on January 9-10, but now Sherman is apparently joining them.
It is expected that by resolving the existing differences during the upcoming talks, the date for starting the initial step of the Geneva agreement can then be set, Araqchi said earlier in the week.
On January 1, the head of Irans expert-level nuclear negotiating team, Hamid Baeidinejad, said Tehran and the six world powers had proposed January 20 as the date to implement the landmark Geneva deal, but that the proposed date needed to be verified by the two sides political directors.
On November 24, 2013, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- Russia, China, France, Britain, and the US -- plus Germany sealed an interim nuclear deal in Geneva.
On December 31, 2013, the two sides concluded three rounds of expert-level talks aimed at devising a mechanism to implement the agreement.
Under the Geneva deal, the six powers undertook to ease sanctions imposed against Iran in exchange for Tehran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activity during a six-month period.
It was also agreed that no nuclear-related sanctions would be imposed on Iran within the same timeframe.