|
 The negotiations, aimed at blocking Iran's capacity to build a
nuclear bomb in exchange for lifting sanctions, have become bogged
down over crucial details of the accord, even as the broad outlines
of an agreement have been reached.
Negotiators talked until 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Thursday in the Swiss
city of Lausanne, breaking off for three hours to rest. There were
differing accounts of the extent of progress, with Iran's Foreign
Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif calling it 'significant' but a Western
official describing it as 'limited'.
Ministers and experts shuffled from meeting to meeting overnight as
talks entered their eighth day.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held meetings throughout the
night with his Iranian, German and French counterparts, and European
Union negotiator Helga Schmid.
Kerry and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said they
would stay at least until Thursday in an effort to seal the
"political" agreement, a milestone towards a final pact due by the
end of June. A German delegation source said Steinmeier would delay
a trip to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
UNDER PRESSURE
Six world powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany,
Russia and China - aim to stop Iran from gaining the capacity to
develop a nuclear bomb. Tehran wants to lift international sanctions
that have crippled its economy, while preserving what it views as
its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The powers and Iran said they had moved closer, but both sides
accused the other of refusing to offer proposals that would break
the deadlock.
The talks - the culmination of a 12-year process - have become hung
up on the issues of Iran's nuclear centrifuge research, details on
the lifting of U.N. sanctions and how they would be re-imposed if
Iran breached the agreement.
All sides are under pressure not to go home empty handed, but
Washington reiterated on Wednesday it was willing to walk away if
the sides couldn't agree on a preliminary framework. White House
spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington: "the time has
come for Iran to make some decisions."
There were also signs that President Barack Obama, whose
administration was behind the end-March interim deadline that was
criticized by the French and others as an artificial one, was coming
under renewed pressure to walk away from the negotiations.
[to top of second column] |
Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham predicted the
talks will not end well. "Any hope that a nuclear deal will lead
Iran to abandon its decades-old pursuit of regional dominance
through violence and terror is simply delusional," they said in a
joint statement.
The talks represent the biggest chance of rapprochement between Iran
and the United States since the Iranian revolution in 1979, but face
scepticism from conservatives in both nations' capitals.
Washington's allies in the region, especially Israel and Saudi
Arabia, are also deeply wary of any deal.
Even if there is a preliminary deal, it will be fragile and
incomplete and there is no guarantee of a final deal in the coming
months.
But Iran has repeatedly expressed optimism that an initial agreement
was within reach, as has Russia, which with China is closest to Iran
among the powers.
A key goal of the talks for Washington is to impose conditions on
Iran that would increase the "breakout time" Tehran would need to
develop a nuclear weapon if it should decide to pursue one.
An agreement would almost certainly lift sanctions only in stages,
deferring even a partial return of Iranian crude oil exports until
at least 2016. Sanctions have halved Iran's oil exports to just over
1 million barrels per day since 2012 when oil and financial
sanctions hit Iran.
Oil futures fell on Thursday, retreating from big gains in the
previous session, on the prospect of a deal and a possible increase
in Iran's crude exports.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by
Janet McBride)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
