The new deadline is Friday – 10 days after the June 30 deadline that had been set in April when the negotiators settled on a framework for the deal. Iranian media said that the talks have been extended for three more days.
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“I told you one week ago more or less that we are interpreting our deadline in a flexible way”.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said, “We have serious concerns with Iranian malign activities outside of the nuclear issue”. “We’re all quite well aware of what is left to be done, and everyone understands that time does not help get those decisions made. If things really just break down and it’s clear there’s no way of getting there that anybody can see, I think that puts us in another place”. “Either this works in the next 48 hours or it doesn’t”.
Global powers wrestling for a deal to curtail Iran’s suspect nuclear programme failed to meet another deadline Tuesday, with all sides vowing to now keep working until the end of the week. “They say there is no reason to connect it with the nuclear issue, a view that is hard to accept”, an unnamed Western official told Reuters.
He also condemned Western sanctions against his country, which are meant to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Tehran insists are peaceful, saying they were “the most indiscriminate imposed on any nation in human history”. The United States and its allies fear Iran is using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
He said defense officials wanted to make sure Iran’s military remained isolated and hindered from greatly upgrading its “equipment and material”.
The remarks come after negotiators pushed to extend the talks with Iran until Friday, July 10.
It is the fourth time the parties have extended the terms of the interim deal, which was struck in November 2013 and provided Iran with limited sanctions relief in exchange for a halt to the production of uranium enriched to a purity level of 20 per cent.
The United States” negotiating team, seeking to get a deal that will curb Iran’s nuclear program, has called the accusations that it is rushing towards a deal “insulting.’.
“This is actually a strategy that has been recommended by even some Republican members of Congress”, Earnest said. However, comments from the Iranian and American camps suggest they are not adhering to a fixed deadline and that negotiations will continue until they succeed or fail. The official said the U.S.is insisting that any new United Nations Security Council resolution pertaining to Iran retain an arms ban and ballistic missile restrictions.
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But she said it was still possible to overcome the remaining differences and reach a deal to draw a curtain on a 13-year standoff with Iran, first triggered when dissidents revealed its nuclear program in 2002.
