Foreign minister calls on Iranians to 'pray' for favourable n-deal

Tehran, July 6 (IANS/EFE) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday called upon his countrymen to pray for an "advisable" nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of world powers, whose "results are not still definite".

Delegations have been negotiating in Vienna for the last 11 days to settle on Iran's nuclear program, Zarif told official Iranian news agency IRNA, but added that just hours before the deadline some obstacles still stood in their way.

"We are trying to remove some remaining misunderstandings, but there are still some disagreements on some issues," the minister said, who then asked the Iranian people to pray for a favourable outcome that would serve the interests of the nation, Muslims and Islam.

IRNA quoted a senior Iranian negotiator as saying that 70 percent of the technical annexes that supplement the nuclear deal has already been drafted, while up to 90 percent of the other addendums were nearly completed, and that the rest would be concluded on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Sunday that although nuclear negotiations between the world powers and Iran are closer than ever to reaching agreement, important decisions must be made quickly to avert a possible failure.

Tuesday marks the deadline for Iran and the P5+1 group -- the US, Russia, China, Britain, France plus Germany -- to reach a final deal ensuring that Iran does not build a nuclear bomb and guaranteeing Iran the right to a civilian atomic programme, as well as relieving the country of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

--IANS/EFE

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