Officials on Tuesday missed a self-imposed deadline to complete the deal, and now hope to wrap up on Friday. They call for Iran to abandon its ballistic missile programme and aim to prevent it from developing “nuclear weapon delivery systems”, which diplomats say covers any missile capable of delivering an atomic warhead.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the power to block a deal, last month ruled out either a long freeze of sensitive nuclear work or opening military sites to inspectors. “Western nations must be prepared to give up sanctions“.
“From red lines to deadline extensions, the Obama Administration has been dangerously accommodating and we can not continue to reward Iran’s bad behavior”, Perdue said.
Meanwhile, the six negotiating powers said an interim deal with Tehran made in April will remain in place until July 10, giving officials more time to strike a final agreement.
The two sides agreed to an interim deal that curbed some parts of Iran’s nuclear programs in November 2013.
Representative Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the “mixed bag” deal with Iran will push Iran “considerably” further away from a nuclear weapon but also will give Iran “greater resources…to do its nefarious work throughout the region” on Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC. “This is not an open-ended process”.
However, a source told Reuters that this is the final extension.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (second from right) meets with USA Secretary of State John Kerry at a hotel in Vienna, Austria July 3, 2015.
Their Russian, Chinese, French and British counterparts – which along with Germany make up the P5+1 group in talks with Iran – had already left.
“All sides realize that this is the last negotiations”, Wang said.
“We are interpreting in a flexible way our deadline, which means that we are taking the time, the days we still need, to finalise the agreement”, Mogherini said, adding that there remained several hard issues to resolve.
Negotiators extended a June 30 deadline to July 7, and have effectively extended the deadline again until Friday.
If a deal comes later than Thursday, a date set by U.S. Congress, the U.S. legislature would get 60 instead of just 30 days to review it before it comes into effect, thus giving additional time to U.S. and Iranian hardliners for lobbying against it. Over the weekend, diplomats reported tentative agreement on the speed and scope of sanctions relief for Iran in the potential accord, even as issues such as inspection guidelines and limits on Irans nuclear research and development remained contentious.
Iran is pushing for an end to a United Nations arms embargo on the country but Washington opposes that demand.
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The No. 2 Democrat in the US House, Rep. Steny Hoyer, told reporters Tuesday the talks “ought to be brought to a close”. Another approach, which might not satisfy Iran, would delay a lifting of the embargoes until some later, arbitrary milestone is reached, Vaez said. The world powers say any deal must restrict the Islamic Republic’s ability to pursue nuclear weapons.
