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Iran’s nuclear talks are due to enter the make-or-break endgame, days ahead of a deadline that may not be met as few, but significant, hurdles stand in the way.
Officials from Iran and six world powers – US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – arrived in Austria’s capital Vienna for the final round of talks starting on Friday, in which it is hoped Iran will make concessions on its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. The deal has to be reached before Monday’s deadline.
Speaking in Paris on Thursday before flying to Vienna, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “We’re not discussing an extension. We’re negotiating to have an agreement. It’s that simple.”
He added, however, that the US and all the other powers were “concerned about the gaps”.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had said on Wednesday that he was “not optimistic” the deadline could be met.
“I think if we make some significant movement, we may be able to find a way of extending the deadline to allow us to get to the final deal,” Hammond said in Latvia’s capital Riga.
Ghanbar Naderi, an Iranian journalist in Tehran, told Al Jazeera that he would not be surprised if there was another extention of the talks because neither side was willing to make significant concessions.
Russia’s main negotiator in the talks, Sergei Ryabkov, was quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday as saying “tense atmosphere” shadows the talk, and that “in the current situation it will be very difficult to get a deal unless there is a new spirit”.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who together with his British counterpart was expected in Vienna yesterday, said at a joint news conference with Kerry in Paris that he hoped differences could “be bridged but that depends to a very large extent on Iran’s attitude”.
Iran’s speaker of parliament Ali Larijani meanwhile told Iranian media: “We’re constantly cooperating [but the other side] is raising the tone.” – Al Jazeera
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