TEHRAN
Iran and the world powers group P5+1 are yet to achieve a framework accord on the nuclear issue despite the end of March deadline approaching fast, a top Iranian Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.
Hamid Baeidinejad, Iranian Foreign Ministry's director-general for political and international security affairs, made the remarks to the media Tuesday at the Beau-Rivage Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The P5+1 group includes the U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France plus Germany.
Baidinejad, however, said that all sides in the ongoing nuclear talks were persisting with their negotiations to make way for the permanent agreement.
"Everyone needs to show determination to find new formulas. We all have been striving to achieve the deal," he said.
The talks had recently been ramped up amid concerns that a failure to produce a framework deal before March 31 could jeopardize any positive outcome of a final detailed agreement by July 1.
About the deadline, he said, "This issue, the deadline, was not addressed, so far. Everyone has been trying to provide the framework agreement, this topic is important for everyone".
The P5+1 group has claimed that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and wants the program curbed in return for lifting of international sanctions. Tehran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful civilian purposes.
The group wants Iran to accept limits on its uranium enrichment capacity and allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspections without interference.
