Iran Nuclear Weapons Threat News: Iran, U.S. To Speed Up Nuke Talks To End 12-Year Standoff

The governments of Iran and the United States both agreed to explore ways that can hasten the negotiation process over Tehran's nuclear program in a meeting that will begin in Geneva on Wednesday, an Iranian official disclosed.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif confirmed he will be meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of formal talks between Iran and six world powers to settle a 12-year standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambition.

"Our negotiations with the U.S. representatives on Wednesday will strictly be on issues only related to nuclear talks. We will try to see if it we could speed up the negotiations and move forward," Zarif said.

"We will see how useful it will turn out. We are constantly gauging the benefits," he told reporters during a joint press conference in Tehran with Zarif's Cypriot counterpart on Sunday.

Lower-level negotiators from Iranian and U.S delegations will hold bilateral meetings from Jan. 15 to 17 before Iran and the so-called P5+1 group of international mediators meet on Jan. 18 in Geneva. The P5+1 is composed of the U.S., France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China.

At the same time, Iran also disclosed its plan to present its first enriched uranium-free nuclear fuel complex on April 9 amid Western sanctions.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (A.E.O.I.), said the produced fuel will be similar to the one used at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.

Salehi also said that during the talks with P5+1 on the Iranian nuclear program in November last year, "the two sides have roughly reached a full agreement and agreed on general principles."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, said his country did everything possible to hinder the agreement with Iran, Sputnik reported.

After years of talks, Iran and the P5+1 agreed to prepare a document ensuring the peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear program.

This came after the broad coalition of governments imposed sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear program, which Iran has been claiming is of purely peaceful nature.

The U.S. government agreed to provide limited sanctions relief on the condition that oil-rich country will freeze its nuclear program, prompting Iran to halt its production and open its doors to international inspectors.

In November 2013, the P5+1 group agreed to reach a deal with the Tehran delegation guaranteeing the peaceful nature of the nuclear program by July 2014.

The Iranian government agreed with the deal in exchange that the group of six nations would lift sanctions against the oil power. The deadline was later extended to November 24, 2014 after reaching only an interim accord on the nuclear issue.

But during another round of negotiations in Vienna in November last year, the countries again failed to reach a comprehensive deal, extending the talks until July 1, 2015.