Zarif blasts France for preventing Iran-powers deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that Tehran and the world powers were on the verge of striking a deal in the recent Geneva talks, but French officials impeded the agreement by their negative stance, FARS news agency reported. “Reaching an agreement with most members of the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) was likely, but anyway there was a need for the companionship of all of them and as you have heard from the public remarks of the ministers, one of the delegations (the French) created some problems,” Zarif wrote on his Facebook page before leaving Geneva for Tehran Sunday. “Anyway, the decision was made to hold another meeting to settle the remaining problems on November 20 so that the delegations can continue the negotiations,” he added. A day after progressive negotiations, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who presides over the delegations of the six world powers in the talks with Iran, called on US Secretary of State John Kerry to rush to Geneva to go a few more miles because a deal was possible, Israeli premier started hues and cries to stop the deal. On Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu “utterly” denounced the possible agreement in the course of the nuclear talks as “very, very bad”. Kerry rushed to Tel Aviv to soothe Netanyahu's concerns, but he apparently failed. The debates between the two grew so unfriendly that Kerry even excused himself from taking photos with Netanyahu, saying he has a tight schedule and should rush to Geneva.