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.
Advertisement
At issue is a stalled IAEA probe into allegations that before 2003, and possibly since, Iran conducted research work into developing nuclear weapons. Despite the wishful thinking of the Obama Administration surrounding the 2013 selection Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s President, Iran’s support for terrorism has only continued, and its proxies are as violent as ever.
The objective of the visit was to advance work towards the resolution of all outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program, including clarification of possible military dimensions, Amano said in a statement Friday. Anything beyond in that would be unfair, he said.
US, European and Iranian officials, including US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Iranian deputy foreign ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takhteravanchi, held a six-hour negotiating session that ended at 3am on Friday, a senior US official said. “The United States has already made significant concessions in these negotiations, and I am concerned that extending these talks will only increase the inevitability of Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon”.
A senior Iranian official told reporters the issue could be resolved by Tehran agreeing to the global Atomic Energy Agency’s rules known as the “Additional Protocol”. Iran denies this, saying its programme is for peaceful purposes.
Iran is hedging its bets that it may not be able to sign a final deal on their nuke program, and wishes to keep as much uranium gas viable for more enrichment as possible.
Not even clear violations of their obligations will deter the administration from reaching a deal.
The official didn’t spell out what that meant, but Iran would have several options, such as installing new centrifuges, enriching uranium at levels closer to weapons-grade or restarting activity with material that can be used in warheads where it has pledged to do no such thing.
“But we believe we’re making progress and we’re going to continue to work because of that”, he told reporters.
“Iran’s cooperation with IAEA has a long history and has proved to the IAEA that the accusations against Iran have been totally baseless”, Rouhani said. Non-nuclear sanctions, such as for Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, must remain in effect and be vigorously enforced.
The removal of sanctions against Iran and access to or inspections of the country’s military sites seem to be the major bones of contention.
Advertisement
Tuesday was the official deadline to reach a long-term deal that would build on the preliminary agreement in Lausanne, but the seven countries have agreed to extend the deadline until 7 July to allow more time for negotiations.
