|
 Diplomats said the Vienna talks would run on for as long as
necessary to reach a deal intended to promise an end to sanctions in
exchange for at least a decade of limits on Iran's most sensitive
nuclear activities.
The West and its allies suspect Iran may be developing technology
that would allow it to build nuclear weapons under cover of a
civilian atomic energy program, but Tehran says its ambitions are
strictly peaceful.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is on crutches due to a
broken leg, has remained in Vienna to await the return of Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from consultations with the
leadership in Tehran, and the arrival of the foreign ministers of
France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China.
"There are real and tough issues that remain which have to be
resolved in order to get the comprehensive agreement, and we still
do not know yet whether we will be able to get there," a senior U.S.
administration official told reporters.
 Zarif flew in on Tuesday morning with Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar
Salehi, still recovering from major surgery in May, and immediately
went into almost two hours of private discussions with Kerry.
"I am here to get a final deal, and I think we can," he told
reporters." Zarif was also due to meet his German and Russian
counterparts later.
For more than a week, the United States, Britain, France, Germany,
Russia and China have been working into the night with Iran trying
to break an impasse in talks that they feel have never been closer
to concluding positively.
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Diplomats have said the real deadline is not June 30 but July 9, the
latest that the deal can be presented to the U.S. Congress if a
mandatory review period before President Barack Obama can begin
suspending sanctions is to be limited to 30 days. After that, the
review will last 60 days, with growing risks that the deal could
unravel.
The main differences are on the pace and timing of sanctions relief
for Iran and on the nature of monitoring mechanisms to ensure it
complies with the deal.
A big sticking point is Western demands that U.N. inspectors have
access to Iranian military sites and nuclear scientists.
Western diplomats say they are nearing a resolution, although
Iranian officials maintain that access to military sites is a red
line set by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The U.S. official said the six powers had come up with a system to
ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would have
the necessary access, though there was no suggestion the Iranians
had agreed to this.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Arshad Mohammed)
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