ANKARA
The next round of negotiations between Iran and Western countries will resume Wednesday in Austrian city Vienna to continue until Friday.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the negotiators will focus on the "sanctions on Iran," the country's news agency IRNA reported Wednesday.
Araghchi, who is also Iran's senior nuclear negotiator, and EU Foreign Policy Deputy Chief Helga Schmidt are expected to start the negotiations, which will be held at the deputy minister level.
On April 2, Iran and the P5+1 countries, five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the U.S., U.K., China, France, Russia, plus Germany -- reached a framework deal in the Swiss city of Lausanne amid Iran's nuclear program.
After postponing the self-imposed March 30 deadline twice, the sides issued a joint press statement, however their respective interpretations of the framework deal varied later.
While the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that sanctions on Iran would be removed gradually, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said sanctions on Iran should be lifted as soon as a final agreement is reached.
"As we return to negotiations this week, we will seek an explanation from the U.S. team and greater clarity regarding all detailed aspects of sanction removal," Araghchi was quoted as saying by semi-official news agency FNA, Fars News Agency.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham also told reporters Wednesday in Tehran that Araghchi had previously stated in an interview that certain parts of the framework deal could still be changed, according to FNA.
Araghchi also voiced his concerns over the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee's "Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015" saying it "casts some further doubt over the U.S. policy makers' overall intentions regarding the entire negotiations," IRNA reported.
On April 14, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously moved to the Senate floor for a vote a "compromise bill", which would give U.S. lawmakers more oversight on the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran.
Iran and the six nation group have until June 30 to reach a final agreement in the nuclear negotiations.
