Local Editor

The Russian deputy foreign minister had given a positive assessment of the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries over Tehran's nuclear program.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov had expressed hope that Iran's nuclear talks will "advance towards results in a few days' time," Russian news agency TASS reported.

"All the crucial signals from both sides were made and the main thing was the confirmation of resolve to continue collaboration in the interests of designing agreements on this old complicated problem," Ryabkov said.

Moreover, the Russian diplomat also hailed the "good" pace of the current round of negotiations in the Austrian capital city of Vienna, which kicked off on Tuesday. He added that the two sides settled many points of disagreement in the previous round of talks in New York.

"As for the expectations, the pace is good now, unlike it was at many of the previous rounds of talks when dialogue was miring," he said.

He further added, "The New York round at the level of experts, and the one at the level of Iran's  and EU Deputy High Representative Helga Schmidt was very, very fruitful and although it was a little dragged out, its duration paid back and was justified."

According to reports, Iranian negotiators were due to hold bilateral meetings with Russian and Chinese representatives later on Friday. They would then sit down with their European counterparts later in the day.

Nonetheless, Ryabkov also pointed out that the involved sides would continue the talks "to discuss things in the same key."

Iran and the P5+1 countries - Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany -- were seeking to finalize a comprehensive deal on Tehran's nuclear program by the end of June. The two sides reached a mutual understanding in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 2.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website team