During the Saturday meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the 69th UN General Assembly, the two top diplomats emphasized the need for the continuation of nuclear discussions between Iran and the six states – the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.
Zarif and Lavrov also held talks on the upcoming summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states, which is scheduled to be held in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan on Monday.
Iran and its negotiating partners are currently in talks to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear energy program within a November 24 deadline.
Last November, the two sides clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. However, they agreed to extend their talks until November 24 as they remained split on a number of key issues.
Zarif and Lavrov sat down for talks as Iran and the six powers wrapped their latest round of closed-door talks in New York on Saturday.
Following the meeting, the Iranian foreign minister said more talks would be held in future to reach a permanent deal on Iran’s nuclear energy program, adding that the next round of nuclear negotiations would be held in a European country.
On Friday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Abbas Araqchi, a top nuclear negotiator, said Iran and the P5+1 states had not reached any agreement on major issues, adding, however, that there had been progress with regard to the details of technical issues.