Iran and world powers gave themselves an extra week on Tuesday to reach an accord curbing Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, but USA President Barack Obama warned there would be no deal if all pathways to an Iranian nuclear weapon were not cut off.
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“Of course, it’s unpleasant for the Iranians to come clean on all their dirty linen and there is a lot of dirty linen”, said another official. “There are small and big obstacles, and we are working on removing these”, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“They’ve asked to interview 18 scientists but, in the past, making names available led to the murder of scientists”, says Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran, who is also in Vienna.
The global Atomic Energy Agency issued a report Wednesday that showed that Iran has in fact scaled back on its uranium stockpile, as part of the negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said some progress had been made and that he would return to Vienna on Sunday evening in the hope of clinching a final deal to end a 12-year standoff between Iran and the West.
Major sticking points include how quickly sanctions will be removed, and what measures will be put in place to ensure that Iran complies with a deal.
“Any proposal which pragmatically guarantees the continuation of Iran’s peaceful nuclear technology and remove oppressive and illegal sanctions unconditionally will be welcomed by Iran”, he added.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at the luncheon of the fourth World Peace Forum in Beijing, capital of China, June 27, 2015.
“Ahead of a July 7 deadline for reaching a deal, charges from Republicans that Obama will be willing to accept a bad deal in order to bolster his legacy have grown”.
Ravanchi also explained that there will be not be a plenary session between the sides and that the nuclear negotiations will be held bilaterally.
“Not at breakthrough moment yet”, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond tweeted.
“The Supreme Leader has always prided himself on resistance against the United States and not compromising in the face of pressure”, Sadjapour said.
This is gravely concerning to those of us in Congress who define these sanctions as addressing a wide-range of Iran’s nefarious acts.
“We have some very tough issues and I think we all look forward to getting down to the final effort here to see whether or not a deal is possible”, said Kerry.
“We discovered nearly accidentally in the process of the war with Iraq that they had a secret enrichment program”, said George Perkovich, Carnegie Endowment for global Peace nonproliferation expert.
“Iran, as in the past, is ready to continue collaborating closely with the IAEA to resolve the remaining issues”, Shamkhani told local reporters.
Blinken also said in the appearance on MSNBC Thursday, “What we don’t know is whether the Iranians have the political space to make a deal”.
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Amano is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani later in the day.
