Kerry to meet Iranian FM in Geneva

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Iran's foreign minister in Geneva on Jan. 14 to discuss the Iranian nuclear program days before a new bout of nuclear talks between Tehran and major powers, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Friday.

Psaki told reporters that the aim of the meeting between Kerry and Mohammad-Javad Zarif was to provide guidance for their negotiating teams which would hold their first bilateral consultations on Jan. 15-17.

The U.S. State Department announced Thursday that U.S. acting Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman and the American negotiating team will meet on Jan. 15-17 with Iranian officials in Geneva.

The world major countries and Iran will resume talks in the Swiss city on Jan. 18 as they are hoping to agree on a framework of a nuclear deal by March and a final agreement by June 30.

In 2013, the P5+1 group (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) struck a preliminary deal with Iran for Tehran to suspend its nuclear program in return for lifting the decade-long economic sanctions.

However, the negotiations fell short of meeting a self-imposed deadline last November and the two sides agreed to extend the preliminary agreement by another seven months.

Meanwhile, Psaki said before his Iran-related meetings in Geneva, Kerry would travel to Ahmedabad, India, where he would meet the prime minister of Bhutan, the highest-level meeting ever between the two countries.

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