Michael Mann said on Wednesday that Ashton will first hold bilateral talks with Zarif in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Tuesday, October 14.
“They (Ashton and Zarif) will be joined by US Secretary of State John Kerry for a trilateral meeting on Wednesday," Mann added.
The remarks came hours after Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said preparations for a new round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 are underway.
Tehran’s nuclear negotiations with six world powers are making "slow progress,” but both sides have already developed an understanding that the talks must continue, she pointed out.
Afkham stated that there are still differences between the two sides and talks are continuing on the key issues.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US – plus Germany held their latest round of talks in New York on September 18-26, to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear energy program before a November 24 deadline.
In November 2013, Iran and its negotiating partners clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. However, they agreed to extend their talks until November 24 as they remained split on a number of key issues.
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