Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he is hopeful Iran and the six world powers can resolve a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program by the end of November.

Zarif expressed optimistically after his meeting in Brussels with European Union officials including top E.U. diplomat Catherine Ashton.

A breakthrough came last November when Iran and (Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the U.S.) reached an interim deal leaving the door open for more negotiations and a final agreement.

A July deadline came and went, and all the parties agreed to keep talking. Iran seeks the lifting of crippling international economic sanctions.

World powers want Iran to curb its uranium enrichment and guarantees that Tehran is not making a nuclear bomb.

Zarif says new sanctions on his country are not helpful and he pointed a finger directly at the United States.

The brutal rampage by IS in parts of Syria and Iraq and its threats of creating a Sunni state could lead to instability in the wider Middle East, and that’s the last thing Shiite Iran and the United States want to see.

Publicly both Tehran and Washington deny there’s any direct cooperation.

In fact, Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani took an usually hardline approach recently.

According to the New York Times, Rouhani ruled out talks with the U.S. saying America’s actions created the IS problem and Washington cannot be trusted.

The threats posed by the Islamic State and Tehran’s nuclear program are topics that will likely come up at the U.N. General Assembly later this monthan opportunity for the international community to make progress on two pressing issues.

Iran nuclear talks hope for an agreement

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he iss hopeful Iran and the six world powers can resolve a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program by the end of November.

For more on the threat from the Islamic State and other issues that might factor into relations between Iran and the U.S., Mohsen Milani joins the show.

He is Executive Director of the Center for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies, and Professor of Politics at the University of South Florida.

Major strategic goals for Iran and US relations

For more on the threat from the Islamic State and other issues that might factor into relations between Iran and the U.S., Mohsen Milani joins the show.