US Secretary of State John Kerry's "constructive" talks with his Iranian counterpart over Tehran's contentious nuclear programme ended today with some "progress" made but there was still a "long way to go" as a new round of negotiations would take place next week.
The meeting will take place on March 2 at the level of political directors, a senior US official said after the two- day talks between Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ended.
The new round will be held on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council session beginning March 2.
Kerry, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, senior director at the National Security Council, Rob Malley, Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz and their Iranian counterparts, including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's brother, Hossein Fereydoun, along with their nuclear experts discussed the technical details for the outline of an agreement which the parties are scrambling to reach by the March 31 deadline.
Kerry when leaving said "progress has been made during the day". A US official said that "in the past few days discussions allowed negotiators to very much sharpen up some tough issues we can work to a resolution. These were very useful and constructive discussions."
"These were serious, useful and constructive discussions. We have made some progress, but we still have a long way to go," the official said.
Zarif told the Iranian media that "talks were serious, useful and constructive especially with the US. Made some progress on some issues but long way ahead."
The US-Iran talks aims to strike a deal on an initial freezing of the Islamic republic's nuclear programme but slowly allow the enrichment of its uranium programme.
The restrictions on the enrichment programme could be anywhere from a decade, as Iran wants, or up to 20 years, as the US wants. The easing of sanctions from the West would be staggered over time.
Iran at present has several trade and petroleum sanctions which is squeezing its economy.
Meanwhile a separate meeting of the P5+1 nations -- China, Russia, the UK, the US, France and Germany -- with the Islamic republic ended on a positive note.
The Barack Obama administration has outlined two deadlines from the Iran nuclear deal which the P5+1 are trying to broker -- March 31 for an outline of the agreement and the end of June for the entire accord.
The P5+1 are trying to broker a deal with Iran to end an over decade-long standoff over its nuclear programme in return for an easing of sanctions.
Iran, however, has maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
