Lausanne, March 16 (RHC) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began on Monday morning their first meeting in a fresh round of talks over Iran's long-disputed nuclear program.  According to Xinhua, the talks were joined by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

A source close to the Iranian team said that Zarif will fly to Brussels to talk with his counterparts from Germany, France and Britain Monday afternoon and then return to Lausanne for further talks with Kerry.  The top Iranian diplomat said en route to Lausanne earlier on Sunday that if there were political will, making a deal would be possible.

Kerry also said that he hoped "in the next days" it would be possible to reach an interim deal with Iran if Tehran can show that its nuclear power program is for peaceful purposes only.