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 For nearly a week, the United States, Britain, France, Germany,
Russia and China have been trying to break an impasse in the talks,
which are aimed at stopping Iran from gaining the capacity to
develop a nuclear bomb in exchange for easing international
sanctions that are crippling its economy.
But disagreements on enrichment research and the pace of lifting
sanctions threatened to scupper a deal that could end a 12-year
standoff between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear ambitions
and reduce the risk of another Middle East war.
"The two sticking points are the duration and the lifting of
sanctions," an Iranian official said. "The two sides are arguing
about the content of the text. Generally progress has been made."
Officials played down expectations for the talks in the Swiss city
of Lausanne.
For days they have been trying to agree on a brief document of
several pages outlining key headline numbers to form the basis of a
future agreement. Officials said they hoped to be able to announce
something, though one Western diplomat said it would be "incomplete
and kick some issues down the road".
Negotiations among the parties on sticking points went into the
night and continued on Tuesday. They were expected to run late and
possibly into Wednesday. Officials said they were hoping to agree on
some kind of declaration, while any actual preliminary understanding
that is agreed might remain confidential.
 It was also possible they would not agree on anything.
"We are preparing for both scenarios," another Western diplomat
said.
Officials said talks on a framework accord, intended as a prelude to
a comprehensive agreement by the end of June, could yet fall apart.
"There still remain some difficult issues," U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry told CNN. "We are working very hard to work those
through. We are working into the night."
STICKING POINTS
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his German counterpart
Frank-Walter Steinmeier canceled plans to go to Berlin for a
French-German summit on Tuesday. "The negotiations are at a critical
and difficult phase, making the presence of both ministers in
Lausanne essential," a German government source said.
The real deadline in the talks, Western and Iranian officials said,
is not Tuesday but June 30.
They said the main sticking points remain the removal of U.N.
sanctions and Iranian demands for the right to unfettered research
and development into advanced nuclear centrifuges after the first 10
years of the agreement expires.
Iran said the key issue was lifting sanctions quickly.
"There will be no agreement if the sanctions issue cannot be
resolved," Majid Takhteravanchi, an Iranian negotiator, told Iran's
Fars news agency. "This issue is very important for us."
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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 a swift end to sanctions in
exchange for temporary limits on its atomic activities.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was due back in Lausanne
in the afternoon, told reporters in Moscow he believed there was a
good chance of success.
"The chances are high. They are probably not 100 percent but you can
never be 100 percent certain of anything. The odds are quite
'doable' if none of the parties raise the stakes at the last minute,
he said.
Both Iran and the six have floated compromise proposals, but Western
officials said Tehran has recently backed away from proposals it
previously indicated it could accept, such as on shipping enriched
uranium stocks to Russia. Officials close to the talks said dilution
of the stockpiled uranium was an option, noting that the stockpiles
issue was not a dealbreaker.
The goal of the negotiations is to find a way to ensure that for at
least the next 10 years Iran is at least one year away from being
able to produce enough fissile material for an atomic weapon. In
exchange for temporary limits on its most sensitive atomic
activities, Tehran wants an end to sanctions.
Iran and the six powers have twice extended their deadline for a
long-term agreement, after reaching an interim accord in November
2013.
With the U.S. Congress warning it will consider imposing new U.S.
sanctions on Iran if there is no agreement this week, there is a
sense of urgency in the talks.
"With Congress, the Iranian hawks and a Middle East situation where
nobody's exactly getting on, I'm not convinced we'll get a second
chance if this fails," the Western diplomat said.
U.S. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any sanctions
moves by the Republican-dominated Congress.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove in Moscow; Editing by Giles
Elgood)
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