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 For days Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia
and China have been holding negotiations to break an impasse in
negotiations aimed at stopping Tehran having the capacity to develop
a nuclear bomb in exchange for an easing of international sanctions
that are crippling its economy.
But officials at the talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne cautioned
that attempts to reach a framework accord could yet fall apart.
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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there had been
"some progress and some setbacks in the last hours".
"I can't rule out that there will be further crises in these
negotiations," he told reporters in Lausanne.
In addition to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Steinmeier, British Foreign
Secretary Philip Hammond, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius,
Russia's Sergei Lavrov and China's Wang Yi gathered at a
19th-century hotel overlooking Lake Geneva to try to end the
deadlock in the talks.
The ministers met for an hour and then broke of their discussions.
They were expected to meet again later on Monday.
Officials said the talks could run at least until the deadline of
midnight on Tuesday or beyond. If there was a framework agreement
struck in Lausanne, officials said the meeting might relocate to
Geneva for a ceremony.
The six powers want more than a 10-year suspension of Iran's most
sensitive nuclear work. Tehran, which denies it is trying to develop
a nuclear weapons capability, demands in exchange for limits on its
atomic activities a swift end to international sanctions. that are
crippling its economy.
While some issues being discussed in the negotiations have been
resolved, there are several differences on which the two sides have
been unable to reach agreement. Both Iran and the six have floated
compromise proposals in an attempt to make an accord possible.
One sticking point concerns Iran's demand to continue with research
into newer generations of advanced centrifuges that can purify
uranium faster and in greater quantities than the ones it currently
operates for use in nuclear power plants or, if very highly
enriched, in weapons.
Another question involves the speed of removing United Nations
sanctions on Iran. A senior U.S. official said on Sunday there were
other unresolved issues, but expected those would fall into place if
the big sticking points could be worked out.
 Even if Iran and the six powers reach a framework agreement by their
end-March deadline, officials close to the talks say it would be
very preliminary and could still fall apart when the two sides
attempt to agree on all the technical details for a comprehensive
accord by June 30.
There were several examples of the progress and setbacks Steinmeier
referred to. Western officials said Iran suggested it would be
willing to accept keeping fewer than 6,000 centrifuges in operation,
down from its current figure of nearly 10,000, and to ship most of
its enriched uranium stockpiles to Russia.
But senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi told reporters
dispatching stockpiles abroad "was not on Iran's agenda."
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A senior U.S. State Department official said there had been no
decisions on the stockpiles.
"The issue of how Iran's stockpile would be disposed of had not yet
been decided in the negotiating room, even tentatively," the
official said in a statement.
"There is no question that disposition of their stockpile is
essential to ensuring the program is exclusively peaceful...The
metric is ensuring the amount of material remaining as enriched
material will only be what is necessary for a working stock and no
more."
Another Western official said there were "other options" for dealing
with the stockpile issue it was not shipped to Russia, such as
downblending to make it less pure.
It was not clear if the Iranian rejection of certain proposals it
had previously indicated might be acceptable was a sign that Tehran
might be getting cold feet.
"It's not clear if these are the usual negotiations tactics to raise
the stakes or if they just don’t have enough wiggle room to move
ahead," said a Western diplomat. "We'll see today."
On the issue of U.N. Security Council sanctions, officials close to
the talks voiced concerns that the five permanent veto-wielding
council members could object to plans to strip away some of the U.N.
measures in place since 2006, albeit for different reasons.
Britain, France and the United States want any removal of U.N.
sanctions to be automatically reversible, but the Russians dislike
the idea of automaticity because it would weaken their veto power, a
Western official said.
Western officials also voiced concerns that Russia, itself under
U.S. and European Union sanctions over Ukraine, might have
reservations about lifting energy sanctions over fears that bringing
Iranian oil back into the market would further depress the price of
oil.
Despite the deep disagreements on several points, Western officials
said the two sides had been closing in on a preliminary deal that
could be summarized in a brief document which may or may not be
released.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Anna Willard)
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