Kerry, Zarif closing gaps

GENEVA: Washington and Tehran’s top diplomats sat down on Monday for a second day of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme as they struggled to narrow gaps ahead of a key deadline.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif met for two and a half hours at a luxury Geneva hotel on Sunday, and resumed their talks just after 9:30 am (0830 GMT) on Monday.
The meetings are the latest in a string of recent talks between the two men in a bid to smooth the way towards a long-elusive nuclear deal.
World powers are trying to strike an accord with Iran that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb in return for an easing of punishing international economic sanctions. Iran denies its nuclear programme has military objectives.
Tortuous negotiations over the controversy have poisoned relations between Iran and the West for years. However, there is now a heightened sense of urgency as the clock ticks down towards a March 31 deadline to agree on a political framework for the deal.
A senior State Department official said “a full schedule of meetings” was planned on Monday with the participation of all the main negotiators and experts, touching on “virtually every topic”.
“These meetings are steps in a long and tough process,” the official said.
But Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is taking part in the discussions, said “key questions” remained unresolved.
“All parties are negotiating with seriousness and determination, but we haven’t found solutions to key questions,” he told Iranian state television late on Sunday.
“The gap still exists, differences exist,” he added.
Before the talks, Kerry also acknowledged that there were “still significant gaps. There is still a distance to travel.”
US and Iranian diplomats have been meeting in Geneva since Friday, and senior negotiators from the so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany and held parallel negotiations with Tehran on Sunday to help drive the talks forward.