But even concluding this round of talks with that level of ambiguity, Hammond said, would count as a significant success. And he thinks theyll get it.
We envisage being able to deliver a narrative. Whether that is written down or not, I dont think is the crucial issue, Hammond told reporters at the British ambassadors residence during a visit to Washington. This will be a political statement, or perhaps political statements from the [negotiating partners] and Iran which create enough momentum to make it clear that weve now got this boulder over the hill and we are into the detailed work to produce an agreement.
Whether that will happen by Sunday, as some have indicated, is an open question, Hammond said. He said hes expecting to fly to Switzerland soon, but wouldnt commit to a specific date of arrival.
Other sources are also now casting doubt on recent speculation that a deal would come by Sunday.
What form any agreement takes could determine the reactions from senators who have threatened to oppose a nuclear agreement if they deem it insufficiently tough. Some senators have insisted on seeing Iranian commitments in written form before theyd agree not to vote for legislation that the White House says would blow up the talks.
Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said he sees no need for a written document describing an interim agreement in advance of the June 30 deadline for a comprehensive deal.
Hammond said no one should expect that kind of formal document.
The challenge is: as soon as you write anything down, youve got to write everything down, Hammond said.
But he said that whatever the negotiators produce should satisfy 99 percent of peoples questions, while acknowledging that the expected looseness of the agreement opens the possibility that Secretary of State John Kerry will have a different version to talk about in Washington than Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will bring back to Tehran.
Hammond said he believes negotiators are better than halfway on what he estimated were six main areas of agreement. He would not specify what those are, but those watching the talks expect they will include the number of centrifuges Iran is allowed to keep, how much nuclear material it can keep, which sanctions will be lifted and when, the sunset clause that would determine how long the deal would be in effect, whether Irans Arak reactor will be modified, what sort of inspections and monitors will be in place to ensure Iran holds to the deal, and how much of its past weapons research it will be forced to admit.
Specifics will have to wait until June.
I think we will be able to be able to be pretty clear about the breakout time profile that weve achieved as the underpinning of the deal. How much we can translate that into numbers on day one and how much requires further technical work to deliver a precise number, I cant say at this stage, Hammond said.
I hope we will be able to give quite a clear sense of first of all what the objectives are, he said. But then I hope well be able to give some detail as to how well be able to deliver. But how much detail will be one of the things we have to discuss with the Iranians.
This article was written by Edward-Isaac Dovere for Politico on Mar. 27, 2015. Edward-Isaac Dovere is a senior White House reporter. Before coming to POLITICO in April 2011, Dovere was the founding editor and lead writer of City Hall and The Capitol, where his coverage of New York City and state politics was recognized by the New York Press Association, the New York Press Club, the Daniel Pearl Award for investigative journalism. At POLITICO, he oversaw the day to day coverage of the Republican presidential primary campaign before joining the White House team for the 2012 campaign coverage.
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