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 The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China want
Iran to reduce its nuclear fuel-making capacity to deny it any means
of quickly producing atom bombs. In exchange, international
sanctions that have crippled the large OPEC member's oil-dependent
economy would gradually be lifted.
Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy purposes only
and wants the sanctions removed swiftly. But a history of hiding
sensitive nuclear work from U.N. inspectors raised international
suspicions and the risk of a new Middle East war if diplomacy fails
to yield a long-term settlement.
"Obviously we have some very significant gaps still, so we need to
see if we can make some progress," Kerry said ahead of meetings with
foreign ministers who flew into the Austrian capital at the weekend
to breathe new life into the talks.
 Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi delivered a similar
message. He was quoted by Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television
as saying that "disputes over all major and important issues still
remain. We have not been able to narrow the gaps on major issues and
it is not clear whether we can do it."
Kerry arrived in Vienna in the early hours after clinching a deal in
Kabul with Afghanistan's presidential candidates to end the
country's election crisis.
"It is vital to make certain that Iran is not going to develop a
nuclear weapon and that their program is peaceful and that's what
we're here to try and achieve and I hope we can make some progress,"
Kerry said in Vienna.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters that
Germany and the other members of the six-power group have tried to
persuade Iran of the urgency of a deal.
"This may be the last chance for a long time to peacefully resolve
the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program," he told reporters. "It's
now up to Iran to decide whether it wants cooperation with the
international community or to remain in isolation. ... The ball is
in Iran's court."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was crucial for
Tehran "to be more realistic about what is necessary" to reach a
nuclear deal, adding that no breakthroughs had been achieved and
there was "no major change in the state of play in these
negotiations as of this moment".
 Kerry also met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, though
no readout was immediately available. On Saturday, a senior U.S.
official said Iran was sticking to "unworkable and inadequate"
positions.
NEITHER PESSIMISTIC NOR OPTIMISTIC
Another of Kerry's meetings on Sunday was with Germany's Steinmeier,
who raised new accusations of U.S. spying on Berlin.
Steinmeier told reporters that in the meeting with Kerry he called
for "reviving this (U.S.-German) relationship, on a foundation of
trust and mutual respect." Kerry referred to the United States and
Germany as "great friends."
Germany asked the CIA station chief in Berlin last week to leave the
country following fresh charges of U.S. spying on Berlin. Kerry and
Steinmeier were expected to hold a joint news conference later on
Sunday.
Kerry, Steinmeier and their British and French counterparts also
discussed the escalation of hostilities between Israel and
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
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Araqchi said that he was "not pessimistic but also not very
optimistic" about the chances for an agreement with the sextet ahead
of the self-imposed deadline of July 20. "No proposal has been
accepted yet. We have not reached any agreement over the enrichment
(program of Iran) and its capacity."
He added that if the talks collapsed, Iran would resume higher-level
enrichment that it suspended on Jan. 20 when a preliminary accord
the sides struck two months before took effect. Iran won limited
relief from sanctions in return.
The Nov. 24 deal included a provision for lengthening talks on a
permanent agreement by up to six months if all sides agree. Araqchi
said "there is a possibility of extending the talks for a few days
or a few weeks if progress is made."
A senior U.S. official said on Saturday that an extension would be
difficult to consider without first seeing "significant progress on
key issues".
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also raised the possibility
of extending the talks.
"If we can reach a deal by July 20, bravo, if it's serious," he told
reporters. "If we can't, there are two possibilities. One, we either
extend ... or we will have to say that unfortunately there is no
prospect for a deal."
Failure to seal a deal would mean the limited sanctions relief
currently in place for Iran would end and Tehran could expect
tougher sanctions, above all from the United States.
Iran says it is refining uranium to low levels of fissile purity to
fuel a planned network of nuclear power stations. It earlier
described its higher-level - or 20 percent purity - enrichment as
material to fuel a medical research reactor. High-enriched uranium -
or 90 percent - is for nuclear weapons.
The Russian and Chinese foreign minister were not in Vienna on
Sunday due to a meeting in Brazil of the BRICS developing countries.
Moscow and Beijing sent senior diplomats to Vienna instead.
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Fredrik Dahl and Louis
Charbonneau; Writing by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Rosalind
Russell and Kevin Liffey)
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