Treasure the progress so far

The principles of mutual respect and reciprocity should prevail when the parties negotiating on the Iranian nuclear issue push for substantial results, a People's Daily editorial said on Friday.

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany) struck a deal in Geneva on Nov 24, in which Iran agreed to freeze part of its nuclear program in exchange for a limited easing of sanctions. This good momentum was nearly throttled at birth when the United States announced new sanctions against the Islamic republic earlier this month. In response, Iran declared it would withdraw from the talks.

Fortunately, Iran later said it would continue to attend the expert-level talks on implementing the earlier-reached nuclear deal.