LAUSANNE (Dispatches) -- Iran and the United States on Sunday started high-level technical talks over Tehran’s nuclear program here as the two sides are working to put their differences to rest.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz presided over the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by Iranian and American experts as well as Iran’s Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and the AEOI spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for political affairs Wendy Sherman joined the technical discussions.
Heading the Iranian nuclear team, Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif arrived here Sunday for fresh talks with the American delegation, led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry later in the day.
Speaking to reporters, the Iranian chief nuclear negotiator said technical aspects and lifting of sanctions will be the two most important issues that will be discussed in the upcoming round of talks with the P5+1.
Zarif said Iran and the P5+1 countries can reach a deal if the other side shows the same political will as Iran.
"In my view, if the opposite side has the same political will as the Islamic Republic of Iran, reaching a solution will not be difficult,” he said upon his arrival.
Zarif said technical aspects and the lifting of sanctions will be the two most important issues that will be discussed in the upcoming round of talks with the P5+1.
"There are two issues that need to be highlighted in this round of talks. One is regarding the issues which have not been resolved yet or those for which there are solutions but the details of which have not been fully discussed,” he said.
He said the two sides may require more elaborate discussions about certain technical topics.
"The second issue pertains to the sanctions and the commitments of all parties…it should be made clear how the sanctions will be removed and what guarantees are provided for the agreement,” Zarif stated.
The Iranian foreign minister underscored the importance of working out a specific mechanism to make sure that all sides stick to their commitments.
Zarif said political directors of the P5+1 countries are also likely to join talks on Tuesday, noting that the negotiating sides should make efforts to put final touches on the proposed solutions as they should discuss all the proposed solutions before drafting the text of an agreement.
Zarif emphasized that "reaching solutions does not mean a comprehensive agreement”.
He further criticized U.S. senators for sending a threatening letter about the future of any final deal, saying their action showed to the world that Iran is genuinely seeking to find solutions, but a small group is resorting to all means to prevent any deal.
Kerry said most of the differences still barring an agreement are political rather than technical. He said "there are clearly some differences that still rest on a technical judgment".
"But by and large, most of the differences now are political decisions that need to be made in order to fulfill the promise of proving to the world that a program is peaceful," he added. Kerry said in an interview on CBS News that Tehran "to its credit has thus far lived up to every part of the agreement we made over a year ago".
Kerry declined to comment on speculation about the nature of any nuclear program that Iran would have at the end of 10 or 15 years under a negotiated agreement.
"I'm not going to get into the end of the deal or the beginning of the deal, or how long it is, or what the framework is. That is what we are negotiating," the secretary said.
"The proof will be in the pudding, but nobody should be jumping to a conclusion as to what the breadth and framework of this agreement is because it is not yet finalized."
Kerry said he doesn't know yet whether the letter sent to Iranian officials by Senate Republicans has jeopardized the talks, but said he has no doubt that it was calculated to interfere with negotiations.
If an agreement is not reached by the deadline set for the end of March, Kerry suggested that an extension was unlikely. He noted that discussions about developing a framework for proving that the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful have been going on for two years.
"We believe very much that there is not anything that is going to change in April or May or June, that suggests that at that time the decision you can't make now will be made then," he said. "If it's peaceful let's get it done. My hope is that in the next days that will be possible."
Following the talks, Zarif will leave for Brussels on Monday to discuss Iran’s nuclear issue with his German, French and UK counterparts, namely Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius and Philip Hammond.
EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, will host the Brussels talks "as part of the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran”, her office said in a statement last week.

Hardline French Position
As the talks resumed some analysts said France has adopted a tougher stance on Iran.
As the March 31 deadline for striking a deal approaches, France appears to have taken over from previous U.S. administrations the role of chief hawk in the negotiations.
"France has taken the opposite path to that of the United States, which changed strategies with the arrival of Barack Obama," said Bernard Hourcade, an Iran specialist at the National Centre of Scientific Research.
Hourcade says France's current Socialist government has adopted the same intransigent stance toward Iran maintained by former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The French have taken a harder line on Tehran as Paris recognizes Washington's increasing pragmatism in seeking to conclude a deal swiftly.
The French diplomats taking part in the current round of nuclear talks hail from a neo-conservative school of thought that tends to recommend taking an inflexible stance in dealing with Teheran.