Al Arabiya with Reuters and AFP, 15 Oct 2013 – It is too early to say whether Iran and six world powers made progress on Tuesday towards resolving the decade-long standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Reuters.

“It’s too soon to judge,” Araqchi said after the first day of resumed negotiations between Tehran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany.

He was responding to a question about whether Iran and the six powers were any closer to resolving the nuclear dispute after the first day of the two-day talks.

Meanwhile, Iran’s senior negotiator said the nuclear offer that Tehran presented to world powers in Geneva on Tuesday did not cover snap inspections of its atomic facilities.

“It does not exist in the offer,” Agence France-Presse quoted Abbas Araghchi as saying, after being asked if the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allowing unannounced inspections was included in the proposal.

The additional protocol allows reinforced and unannounced inspections of a country’s nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency and requires that information be provided on all activities regarding the nuclear fuel cycle.

For the time being, Iran is only obliged to inform the IAEA three months ahead of transferring fissile material into the nuclear site.

While Iran, a signatory of the NPT, voluntarily implemented the additional protocol between 2003 and 2005, it ceased to apply it after its nuclear case was sent to the United Nations Security Council.