The United States and Iran will hold a two-day bilateral meeting in Geneva next week, Dec. 15-16, ahead of a meeting of political directors from Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5+1), as the parties redouble efforts to reach a final nuclear deal after talks were extended last month.

The resumed US-Iran bilateral meetings are a departure from the three-way, US/Iran/European Union meetings that have been conducted for the past year, since an interim nuclear deal was reached in Geneva last November 2013. 

The US delegation to Geneva will be led by acting Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. Not attending this time will be former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, former vice presidential adviser Jake Sullivan, nor Ambassador Brooks Anderson or State Department Deputy Sanctions Chief Richard Nephew, who are leaving government service, as Al-Monitor previously reported Dec. 3.

Secretary of State John Kerry praised Anderson, who has served for the past year as a Brussels-based adviser to him and Sherman on the Iran nuclear negotiations, leaving her family behind in Montana.