Experts from Iran and the six countries resumed their negotiations in New York on Tuesday on the sidelines of the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

“The two sides will continue with their expert and technical talks to prepare technical and expert issues for the next round of political negotiations which will be held in Austria’s [capital of] Vienna next week,” head of the Iranian negotiating team Hamid Baeidinejad said on Tuesday.

The expert-level talks are co-presided by Baeidinejad, who is director general for political and international security affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, and Stephen Clement, an aide to the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The Iranian official noted that the talks would last until Wednesday.

The negotiations are held ahead of a fresh round of high-level nuclear talks between Iran and the six powers, scheduled to begin in the Austrian capital on May 13.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US – plus Germany wrapped up their latest round of high-level nuclear talks in Vienna on April 9.

Negotiations between Iran and the six countries are aimed at reaching a final agreement to fully resolve the decade-old dispute between the West and Tehran over the latter’s nuclear energy program.

The two sides sealed an interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013 which came into force on January 20.

SHI/SHI