U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, from lef, former EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif meet for talks on the sidelines of nuclear talks with Iran aimed at settling a dispute over Iran's nuclear program at the Palais Coburg in Vienna on November 22, 2014. Photogrpaher: Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images[/caption]Nuclear negotiators with only a day left in Vienna to strike a comprehensive accord with Iran are shifting their focus to salvage a lesser agreement that could give them more time to end their 11-year standoff.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and European Union envoy Catherine Ashton, a U.S. official said. The trio remained behind closed doors inside the Palais Coburg two days after Kerry and Zarif canceled plans to leave Vienna and redoubled their attempts to win a bargain.
An Iranian diplomat denied a media report that a deal is impossible. Negotiators are still considering other paths to a deal capping Irans fissile material production in exchange for sanctions relief, he said while asking not to be named following diplomatic rules.
With their year-old interim accord set to expire tomorrow, diplomats warned before this round of talks began that more time could be needed for an agreement that would end Irans isolation from the West by restricting its nuclear ambitions. The risk facing negotiators is that a partial deal would come under attack from hard-line politicians in the U.S. and Iran that are opposed to diplomacy.
Photographer: Ute Grabowsky/Photothek via Getty ImagesGerman Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, meets with U.S. Secretary of...Read More
Talks could be extended for up to a year, Russias Interfax news service reported today citing an unidentified official close to the talks. Other diplomats who spoke late yesterday and asked not to be named said discussions about an extension hadnt begun.
Serious Gaps
We still have some serious gaps which were working to close, Kerry said yesterday before meeting his German colleague, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A lot of serious work is going on by a lot of people.
The speed at which sanctions are rolled back under a possible deal remained one of the main sticking points, four diplomats told Bloomberg News when talks began this week. Irans capacity to produce fissile material is the other main point of disagreement, they said.
A third issue -- how Iran will address suspicions revolving around its past nuclear work -- isnt complicating talks, a Western diplomat said. International Atomic Energy Agency director general Yukiya Amano said last week the body is ready to accelerate its investigation. The IAEAs 35-member board of governors, led by the world powers negotiating with Iran, is ultimately responsible for concluding if Iran has sufficiently cooperated.
Irans Neighbors
The prospect that the major powers will settle for a deal that Irans neighbors consider weak has nerves on edge from the Persian Gulf to Israel.
Kerry spoke with Arab foreign ministers yesterday in a telephone conference, according to the State Department official, as well as his Canadian and Turkish counterparts. Earlier this week, he met inLondon with the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, whose nation has the worlds fourth-largest oil reserves, and spoke yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel and the U.S. havent ruled out the possibility of military action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely for energy and industrial uses, has seen its economy squeezed and oil output slashed under sanctions.
After a long 10 years of talking to Iran weve come here in Vienna to the hour of truth, Steinmeier told reporters before meeting Kerry yesterday.
By Bloomberg
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