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Sweden’s foreign minister, the latest high-level Western diplomat to visit Tehran, said Tuesday that a comprehensive international nuclear agreement with Iran is possible within six months, media reported.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n “If there is a good will on both sides a deal is possible within a very ambitious time scale of six months,” Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said during a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Iran clinched the interim deal in November with the P5+1 group — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany — under which it agreed to curb its controversial nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The six-month agreement, which took effect January 20, is intended to buy time to negotiate a comprehensive accord that would reassure Western powers that Iran’s nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, as Tehran has long maintained.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n “It’s not going to be easy and it requires a genuine will for compromises on both sides,” Bildt said. “The benefits that are there for both sides are so obvious.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Zarif said Monday in Berlin that he too believed a final deal was possible within six months.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Negotiations are expected to resume in Vienna on February 18.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Both the diplomatic breakthrough, and the election of President Hassan Rouhani, a reputed moderate, earlier last year, have led to a diplomatic thaw, with an increasing number of Western envoys and businessmen travelling to Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n However, Iran and Western countries are still at odds over other issues, including Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and regional militant groups, as well as its own human rights record.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n When asked about human rights, Bildt said the two countries have “different perspectives” but hoped to move forward through “dialogue.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Zarif said last year’s presidential election, in which Rouhani handily defeated more conservative candidates, showed the country’s respect for human rights.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n “The president has made a number of commitments during his campaign and he intends to keep his promises,” Zarif said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Rouhani has pledged to expand political and cultural freedoms since his election in June, and in September authorities freed more than a dozen reformists, journalists and lawyers, including prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In November, a Canadian-drafted UN resolution welcomed Rouhani’s pledges to promote greater freedoms at home, including gender equality and freedom of expression.<\/span><\/p>\n