Iran seeking win-win solution to nuclear standoff

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed optimism about the results of the talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), and said both sides aim to find a win-win solution to the standoff on Tehran's peaceful nuclear program. “We say that we should be after a win-win game because if lose-win conditions rule (the negotiations), the talks won’t continue,” Rouhani said, addressing a gathering of Iranian governor-generals in Tehran on Tuesday. “Either side who feels that it is losing will terminate the agreement after a short period of time; therefore, only an agreement that is based on a win-win game will remain in place,” he reiterated. In relevant remarks in December President Rouhani said the negotiations will yield its early positive results in the next two months. “Mr. Rouhani referred to the Geneva negotiations and said the negotiations will yield positive results in the next one to two months and then we can have development in the country’s economy,” Jabbar Kouchakinejad told FNA at the time, quoting Rouhani's remarks during a meeting with the representatives of the Northern province of Gilan at the parliament. On November 24, Iran and the Group 5+1 sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides. Iran and the six world powers ended a third round of expert-level talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday in a bid to devise mechanisms to implement the interim nuclear deal struck in November. Senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi said the complexity and the importance of the implementation of the Geneva deal has caused Tehran to apply a new strategy and tactic in the arrangement of its negotiating team. “(Iran’s) team of experts will likely be regrouped for holding (expert-level) negotiations pertaining to the final step (of the nuclear deal),” Araqchi, who is also Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said on Sunday.