The progress for Iran to reach a long-sought deal with world powers is hindered as French Foreign Minister undermines a preliminary deal Iran finally managed to clinch with the US and the UK over its nuclear issue, by finding “serious stumbling blocks”.While foreign ministers of the P5+1 spontaneously join the ongoing Geneva talks between Tehran and the world powers, rising optimism that a deal would be reached at the end of a long-sought nuclear dispute with Iran, hopes for a significant progress in talks fade away as reports say France and other powers have found “serious stumbling blocks” in Iran’s proposed package.

While foreign ministers of the P5+1 spontaneously join the ongoing Geneva talks between Tehran and the world powers, rising optimism that a deal would be reached at the end of a long-sought nuclear dispute with Iran, hopes for a significant progress in talks fade away as reports say France and other powers have found “serious stumbling blocks” in Iran’s proposed package.

Reports from Geneva say French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has refused to agree with the draft of Iran proposed joint statement. Fabius’ remarks came as the extended talks entered their third day on Saturday and a lot of progress was obtained with the US and the UK, two major powers previously believed to be the strictest of other powers regarding Iran’s nuclear issue.

In an interview with Al-Monitor’s Laura Rosen, a senior P5+1 diplomat has spoken of a disparity between members of the group. since last year, Iranian negotiators have repeatedly complained about the lack of unity in the group which has deterred reaching a solid agreement with Tehran.

French negotiators are said to take the strictest position in the talks against Iran, witnesses of the talks have said, and their bald statements have repeatedly derailed the progress of the talks.

A member of the Iranian negotiating team told IransView that during Almaty I and II talks which took place in February and April 2013 in Kazakhstan, French Foreign Ministry Director-General for Political and Security Affairs Jacques Audibert, who served as the French top negotiator then, prompted Saeed Jalili to warn of leaving the talk session.

“While Jalili was elaborating on a PowerPoint slideshow provided by the Iranian team, Audibert undiplomatically reactioned to a slide titled as ‘Common grounds of Iran – P5+1 cooperation’ and said they had not come to cooperate with Iran to reach a deal, but to stop Iran’s nuclear program,” the diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “In response, Jalili said he would leave the room if the group is seeking to fight in the talks.”

The diplomat further added that Ashton and even Americans were dissatisfy with french positions and P5+1 tried to stop Audibert from making such statements during the next rounds of talks.

Observers in Tehran say that France take a stark position towards Iran while the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei has invited French officials to cooperate with Iran several times.

“I would like […] to point out that officials of the French government have been openly hostile towards the Iranian nation over the past few years and this is not a clever move by French government officials,” said Ayatollah Khamenei during a speech on March 21, 2013.

“A wise politician should never have the motivation to turn a neutral country into an enemy. We have never had problems with France and the French government, neither in the past nor in the present era. However, since the time of Sarkozy, the French government has adopted a policy of opposing the Iranian nation and unfortunately the current French government is pursuing the same policy. In our opinion, this is a wrong move. It is ill-advised and unwise.”

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Today, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, who is in charge of the nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 since the moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani took the office in the June 14 presidential election, presented a new proposal from Iran during the 1st round of talks and left his deputy Abbas Araghchi in room to lead the Iranian negotiating team.

Iranian diplomats also began lobbying to the P5+1 few days before the talks when Morteza Sarmadi another deputy of the Iranian foreign minister visited Beijing on the eve of the nuclear talks.

Abbas Araqchi also had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabcov on the sidelines of the plenary meeting on Tuesday morning.

Russia and China, as two members of the P5+1 play a key role in balancing the group’s stance towards Iran.

During the talks, having been previously headed by hardliner Saeed Jalili, Iran and the P5+1 failed to reach a consensus even on what topics they should focus on.

Political observers in Tehran maintain that one of the most important obstacles in the former rounds of talks was that the two sides did not have a common objective and the talk sessions proceeded with unrelated, disorderly discussions.

Tehran and the P5+1 members have agreed to keep Iran’s new nuclear proposal which is titled as “An end to a unnecessary crisis, a beginning to a new horizons”  as confidential. Iran also kept its Baghdad proposal presented last year to the P5+1 confidential until the group rejected that months later in Almaty.

Iranian diplomat described the major steps Iran has assumed for reaching an agreement with the other side of the talks were said this morning through a Powerpoint presentation by Zarif.  The steps can be summarized  as being:

– Accepting Iran’s nuclear right for developing, investigating, producing and using nuclear energy;

– Employing truth-finding strategies;

– International cooperation for fulfillment of Iran’s rights;

– Halting all the sanctions imposed on Iran; and

– Cooperation in common interests and concerns.

Both sides of the talks are sending positive signals about the nature of today’s negotiations. But the most important change we are witnessing is the realistic viewpoint of the parties and expectations is balanced as we hear from the early statements of the officials.

 “We will try to reach preliminary results by tomorrow morning, but anyway we do not expect to reach a final solution by tomorrow,” said Abbas Araghchi while briefing Iranian media after the end of first plenary today morning.

He also expressed hope for next round of talks to take place less than one month later.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Lebanese Al-Manar TV that the country already received the first shipment of S-300 missiles from Russia and will receive the second shipment soon.

Al-Akhbar newspaper’s website published some important remarks of the President Assad’s recorded interview which is to broadcast from Al-Manar TV on Thursday night.

“We will participate in Geneva-II conference but we are not optimistic to its result,” Assad said. Geneva talk is due to be held possibly in June.

Assad confirmed military presence of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in Syria and said: “Hezbollah’s forces are in border regions of Syria with Lebanon and they are fighting against Terrorist groups but we are handling the war.”

“Almost 100,000 armed terrorists entered Syria with support of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey,” he said.

Syrian President warned to “respond immediately” to any future attack by Israel.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem also said on Wednesday that Syria will immediately respond to “any possible future attacks by the Zionist regime.”

In an interview with Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV, Al-Moallem said that any response from Damascus will be given without a warning.

“Syria will not let any Israeli aggression go unanswered without retaliation. The retaliation will be the same size as the aggression, and the same type of weapons will be used,” he said.

Moallem added that Syria would take part in the upcoming talks in Geneva without any precondition, adding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would remain president until the next presidential election scheduled to be held in 2014.

“From now until the next elections, President Bashar al-Assad is the president of the Syrian Arab Republic,” he said.

The Syrian foreign minister noted that any deal reached in the Geneva talks would be put to a referendum inside Syria. “If it wins the support of the Syrian people, we will go ahead with it,” Moallem said.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi said in the conference of the Friends of Syria on Wednesday that Syria is disintegrating and continuity of the current situation is threatening the regional stability.

“We strongly condemn the aggression of the Zionist regime on Syrian soil. We reject military intervention and we support the Geneva conference for peacefully resolving this crisis. The people of Syria are waiting for UN efforts to fight terrorism,” Salehi said.

“On political solution for the Syrian crisis, we accede to Iran,” a representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told during the conference, according Iranian Nasim news agency.

Iran is hosting the Friends of Syria Conference in the capital, Tehran, with the participation of representatives from 40 countries as well as heads of regional and international organizations.

The event, which is held under the banner of “Political Solution, Regional Stability,” seeks to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.

Sayed Abbas Araghchi, Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in sideline of the conference that none of opposition groups invited to the conference.

“This meeting is aimed at materializing this political solution and assisting constructive efforts at regional matter. The proposal has to be looked into and if accepted we can set up contact group,” Salehi said.

“Any action must focus on eliminating the terrorism. We should stop delivering arms to Syria and protect the borders of the country. This requires multi-faceted effort from neighboring countries,” Salehi said.

“Thousands of hospitals and schools have been destroyed. Kidnappings and sexual violence are widespread. Syria is disintegrating in front of our eyes. It is threatening regional stability.”

The meeting in Tehran comes as Russia and the United States have also agreed to convene an international conference on Syria in Geneva. However, no date has been set for the meeting yet.

Russia has said that it is imperative for Iran to join a proposed peace conference on Syria despite reservations from some Western nations.

“The issue of Iran is key for us,” said Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, while on a visit to Paris on Tuesday. “Iran, without question, is one of the most important nations.”

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly expressed its opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, stressing that inclusive dialog and national reconciliation as well as free elections are the keys to resolving the unrest in the Arab country.

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“Iran’s Mission in Geneva has an active and effective participation in all topics related to the disarmament initiatives around the world,” said Sayed Abbas Araghchi, Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry in a press conference on Tuesday.

“We will continue to this effective and strong presence and others’ pressures or absence is not a matter of us,” he said.

The United States said Monday it will refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the U.N. forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it’s chaired by Iran because countries under U.N. sanctions shouldn’t be allowed to hold such positions.

Erin Pelton, the spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations, said in a statement issued on Monday that the US would not send its ambassador to the conference.

The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is the world’s most important disarmament negotiating forum. Though members have been divided in recent years, the conference and its predecessors have negotiated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Iran, which frequently calls for the elimination of all the weapons of mass destruction in the world, will accede to the rotating presidency of the 65-nation conference based in Geneva on May 27 and hand it over to another country on June 23.

US repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. 

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. 

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production. 

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