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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that despite hitting a “snag” in nuclear negotiations last week, Iran is  committed “100 percent” to reaching a comprehensive final agreement.

“What I have heard from Secretary Kerry and Lady Ashton is that they are committed to an early finalization of the Geneva process with a view to reaching a comprehensive agreement. I share that objective.”

Zarif, seen by critics as the leader of Iran’s “charm offensive,” has become the most visible international face of a regime seeking a deal that would end punishing economic sanctions.

Mr. Zarif later said on a public panel that Iran “will go to those negotiations with the political will and good faith to reach an agreement.”

Mr. Kerry “reiterated the importance of both sides negotiating in good faith”

Mr. Zarif said publicly that Iran wanted to negotiate seriously for as long as necessary, which could take longer than six months, and he offered to begin a dialogue on human rights issues with the European Union.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will talk Sunday with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton over "serious differences" on how to implement a landmark nuclear deal, media reports said.

"I hope all sides will avoid delving into issues that could become troublesome and complicate the process," Zarif said, without elaborating, in a joint news conference with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino.

Abbas Araqchi told ISNA the phone call "will be on serious differences of opinion over the implementation of the deal.”

Iranian experts have pointed to the crushing international sanctions on the country as a prominent factor behind Tehran's apparent change of direction. Zarif leant credence to that theory, highlighting the lifting of sanctions as Iran's main demand in any ensuing negotiations. The sanctions have brought banking inside the country to a virtual standstill, as well as decimating Iran's oil exports and hard currency earnings. Zarif said the US need to "very rapidly" dismantle what he called the "illegal sanctions against Iran that are targeting ordinary Iranians."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's pinning of blame on Iran for the lack of a deal on its nuclear program last week, saying splits between Western countries prevented a breakthrough.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris could not accept a "fool's game" - in other words, one-sided concessions to Iran - and the negotiations broke off without agreement.

On Monday though, Kerry said the major powers were unified on Saturday when they presented a proposal to the Iranians. "The French signed off on it, we signed off on it, and everybody agreed it was a fair proposal. There was unity, but Iran couldn't take it at that particular moment, they weren't able to accept that particular thing," Kerry told reporters.

"Secretary Kerry reiterated the importance of both sides negotiating in good faith and Iran abiding by its commitments under the Joint Plan of Action. He also made clear that the United States will continue to enforce existing sanctions," a U.S. State Department official said.

Iran has the right to enrich uranium, but does not insist others recognize that right, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Sunday

"Not only do we consider that Iran's right to enrich is unnegotiable, but we see no need for that to be recognized as 'a right', because this right is inalienable and all countries must respect that," Iran's chief negotiator and foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told the ISNA news agency.

Zarif said he was confident a deal could be struck, but cautioned that progress made in recent talks could be reversed if a "satisfactory result" was not reached.

“I believe it is even possible to reach that agreement this week,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with France 24, a major television network here, before meeting with the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius.

the parties are still far from a deal

"We do not accept anyone to write a plan for us (to obey)," Zarif said

Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Moscow today to do a diplomatic victory lap with his Russian allies over America’s withering influence in the Middle East.

Historians will look back at the present moment with astonishment that Iran so skillfully outwitted the West. They will note the breathtaking naiveté of American and European officials who let a brutal theocracy undermine Western interests throughout the Middle East. At one of Iran’s most vulnerable moments, America threw the mullahs a life-line; an ill-conceived nuclear deal coupled with a complete inability to stop Syria, Iran’s closest ally, from continuing to slaughter en masse. Western diplomats speak optimistically of a deal with Syria in Geneva, while the region’s thugs use force of arms to impose their will.

Zarif’s visit to Russia comes days after a trip to Lebanon where he honored master Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh. Does a “moderate” pay homage to one of the most ruthless terrorists in modern history, a man who killed hundreds of American and Jews around the world? Is there anything Zarif could do to forfeit his credentials as a “moderate”? Apparently not.

Iran failed to come up with a promised written statement on the Syria conflict and so UN leader Ban Ki-moon was forced to act, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

UN officials said Ban spent several days negotiating with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on publicly supporting the 2012 Geneva communique which calls for the transitional government in a bid to end Syria's three-year-old war."There was an oral understanding that the secretary general had been led to believe would be followed by an actual written understanding," Haq told reporters to explain the invitation to Iran."In fact the opposite is what happened, that Iran stated the same positions that it had held previously. And that is why he expressed his disappointment at Iran's decision and took his decision to disinvite them," the spokesman added.

temporarily freeze much of Tehran’s nuclear program starting next Monday, Jan. 20, in exchange for limited relief

the United States and Iran have sought to insulate the nuclear negotiations from the tensions over Iran’s regional policies.

“While implementation is an important step, the next phase poses a far greater challenge,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement.

After Iran and the major powers signed onto an interim deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, expectations were high. Over the past week, they have fallen sharply as Iranian officials have made tough public comments and Israel’s prime minister has reaffirmed his opposition to almost any conceivable deal, a skepticism shared by several influential U.S. senators.

Iran and America have fundamentally different views about an acceptable final deal.

Iran’s officials will have to come to terms with the fact that their country is being treated differently and for good reasons. Iran has a program that is suspicious — a massive investment to produce a tiny amount of electricity — and the country has deceived the world about its program in the past.

“Once the Palestinian problem is solved the conditions for an Iranian recognition of Israel will be possible,”  Zarif said in the interview Monday.

tatements made by the Iranian leader and his top aides at the World Economic Forum rekindled concerns in Washington and Europe about his ability to deliver.

But neither Mr. Rouhani, nor his foreign minister, Javad Zarif, used their visit to the Swiss alpine village to convey a willingness to accept the substantial dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure that a final agreement with the U.S. and its diplomatic partners is going to entail.

The Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank that has advised the Obama administration, estimates Tehran will need to mothball or destroy 15,000 of its 20,000 centrifuge machines to guarantee it can’t rapidly “break out” and produce weapons-grade fuel.

By DENNIS ROSS

nobody seems optimistic

he comprehensive deal will be difficult to achieve precisely because it is about rollback. The interim agreement, officially called the Joint Plan of Action, was essentially a “cap for a cap.”

"The talks are going surprisingly well. There haven't been any real problems so far," a senior Western diplomat said, dismissing rumors from the Iranian side that the discussions had run into snags already.

Western officials have signaled they want Iran to cap enrichment of uranium at a low fissile purity, limit research and development of new nuclear equipment and decommission a substantial portion of its centrifuges used to refine uranium.

"The focus was on the parameters and the process of negotiations, the timetable of what is going to be a medium- to long-term process," one European diplomat said.

A diplomatic source clarified that the two sides did not produce a text of an agreed framework for future negotiations or detailed agenda for upcoming meetings, rather only agreeing a broad range of subjects to be addressed in coming months.

Zarif said, according to the official IRNA news agency: "Nothing except Iran's nuclear activities will be discussed in the talks with the (six powers), and we have agreed on it".