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 However, speaking ahead of a meeting between the top U.S., Iranian
and European Union diplomats, the State Department official said
there were still some significant gaps in negotiating positions on
Iran's uranium enrichment program.
"We don’t know if we’ll be able to get to an agreement, we very well
may not,” the official said, declining to be named.
Iran and six world powers -- the United States, France, Germany,
China, Russia and Britain -- aim to end a decade-old nuclear
standoff by a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline.
In a sign of attempts to accelerate their efforts, U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton began talks in
Vienna on Wednesday.
The negotiations are centred on curbing Iran's atomic activity,
which Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at
developing a nuclear weapons capability, in exchange for lifting
sanctions hurting its economy.
But with less than six weeks to go before the Nov. 24 target date,
Western officials say there are still important differences between
the sides, especially over the future scope of Iran's production of
enriched uranium, which can have both civilian and military
applications.
Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said in Geneva the U.S.
should stop focusing on the number of Iran's uranium enrichment
centrifuges, which he described as a "trivial matter", and
concentrate on pushing for a deal.
Western governments want Iran to cut its centrifuge capacity to the
low thousands so that it would take Tehran a long time to purify
enough uranium for an atomic weapon. Tehran has rejected demands to
significantly reduce the number below the 19,000 it has now
installed, of which roughly half are operating.
One of Iran's chief negotiators, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas
Araqchi, last week raised the possibility that the talks could be
extended, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said
the deadline date was not "sacred".
But the State Department official said: "There is still time to get
this done. There’s enough time to get the technical work done, to
get the political agreement ... if everybody can make the decisions
they need to."
"We keep chipping away ... In places gaps have narrowed, but the
Iranians have some fundamental decisions to make,” the official
said. “We're not talking about an extension at the moment." Asked
whether Washington was ruling out accepting any extension, the
official said: "I’m not ruling it in or out".
[to top of second column]
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"ARTIFICIAL SCHEDULES"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Paris on Tuesday
where he met Kerry, said he was "sure that a compromise is possible"
in the negotiations with Iran.
"I can’t guarantee you that it would be reached by November 24. This
date is not sacred," he told Russian television. "I’m sure that the
main thing is not artificial schedules but the essence of the
agreements."
Lavrov himself will not be in Geneva for Wednesday's talks.
Kerry said in Paris on Tuesday he did not believe that reaching a
lasting accord within six weeks was out of reach, although he noted
that many issues remained to be resolved.
Iran rejects Western allegations that it is seeking nuclear weapons
capability, but has refused to halt uranium enrichment, and has been
hit with U.S., EU and U.N. Security Council sanctions as a result.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the sides "might
need more time" to discuss the issues and potential solutions,
Iran's ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
"The fact that there are eye-catching disputes, does not mean they
cannot be resolved," it quoted Zarif as saying after meeting Ashton
in Vienna on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and; Vladimir
Soldatkin in Moscow; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Dominic
Evans)
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