Deadline Missed Again in Iran Nuclear Talks

Local Editor

Rollercoaster talks in Vienna towards a nuclear deal entered a 14th day Friday with still no end in sight, as Iran accused the West of back-tracking and Washington said it was prepared to walk away.

A Friday morning deadline to present the deal to the Congress appeared to have been missed, doubling the time for US lawmakers to review the accord - if it can be reached - to a potentially risky 60 days.

"Unfortunately we have seen changes in the position and excessive demands... by several countries," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said late Thursday after praying at a Vienna mosque.

Each of the nations in the group "have different positions which makes the task even harder," Zarif, who again met US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday morning, told the Iranian television.

On Thursday, following a meeting with his counterparts from France, Germany and Britain, Kerry said that he would not be rushed into a deal but at the same time that he would not negotiate "forever".

"If the tough decisions don't get made, we are absolutely prepared to call an end to this process," Kerry told reporters.
Kerry stressed negotiators were focusing on the quality of the deal, which "has to be one that can withstand the test of time".
 
"It is not a test of a matter of days or weeks or months. It's a test for decades," he said.
Armies of experts have made huge progress on some of the thorniest issues needed to turn this framework into a complex final document of possibly up to 100 pages long.

The main text and five complicated technical annexes are all but written, diplomats say.
"The text is done. It's already there. It's a matter of yes or no," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told CNN on Thursday.

"We are very close, but if the important, historical decisions are not made in the next hours we won't have an agreement."

But there are still gaps, and diplomats say that the remaining differences can only be decided at a political level.

Iran demands that an arms embargo be lifted has thrown a spanner in the works in recent days.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking from Russia, threw Moscow's weight behind Tehran on Thursday, saying Moscow was "in favor of lifting the embargo as soon as possible."
And an Iranian official, who asked not to be identified, said Beijing had also backed Tehran's demand, adding the easing of the UN embargo is a "requirement".

He insisted, however, that "a comprehensive agreement is within reach. It just requires people to abandon unnecessary or illusion objectives".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team