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U.S.'s Kerry, Iran's Zarif to meet at U.N. anti-nuclear arms conference

27 April 2015 17:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the opening of a UN conference on the global anti-nuclear weapons treaty on Monday, as they try to make progress in talks on a long-term atomic deal, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Iran's top diplomat will be the first state party to the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to address its 190 signatories at the United Nations headquarters in New York on behalf of 118 non-aligned nations that have signed the NPT, the world's benchmark disarmament pact.

Zarif and Kerry will meet on the sidelines to discuss negotiations on a landmark nuclear deal with the United States and five other global powers as they try to secure a final agreement with Iran by a June 30 deadline.

"Beside taking part in the conference, we have come here to listen to Americans' explanations on the U.S. administration's undertakings and its domestic policies," Zarif told Iranian state television.

"We consider the U.S. government responsible for fulfilling its international commitments and under international laws," he said. "No government can evade such commitments because of its domestic issues."

Zarif appeared to be referring to U.S. Republican senators' pledge to try to toughen a bill giving Congress the power to review a nuclear agreement with Iran, a move that could further complicate the talks.

In a tentative deal reached on April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, between Iran and the six powers, Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, agreed to curb sensitive nuclear work for at least a decade in exchange for ending sanctions that have crippled its economy.