Lausanne---Iran's foreign minister Wednesday told world powers to "seize the moment" and drop "excessive demands" as marathon high-stakes nuclear talks headed into another long bruising night of hard bargaining.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrived back in Switzerland to rejoin the negotiations saying the talks were in the final stretch.
"We are a few metres ... from the finishing line, but we are well aware that the final metres are the hardest," Fabius told reporters.
The stakes were very high, he said, adding that at issue was the question of non-proliferation, and "Iran's reintegration into the international community."
Fabius was re-joining US Secretary of State John Kerry and their counterparts from Germany and Britain.
"Iran has shown its readiness to engage with dignity and it's time for our negotiating partners to seize the moment," Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters late on a seventh day of talks in Lausanne.
Iran had shown that it wants "an entente" with the world but it "will not accept submitting to force and excessive demands. Those we are negotiating with should accept this reality," Zarif said.
It remained unclear however if six world powers and Iran will manage to agree the main contours of a deal which would put any Iranian drive for a nuclear bomb out of reach.
The aim is to turn this into a comprehensive accord by June 30 when an interim deal struck in November 2013 -- which saw Iran freeze certain nuclear activities in return for minor sanctions relief -- expires.
Success would end a 12-year-old standoff. Failure may set the United States and Israel on a road to military action to thwart Iran's nuclear drive.
The White House warned again Tuesday that the military option to deprive the Islamic republic of nuclear arms remained "on the table".
"We continue to make progress, but have not reached a political understanding," US State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
Kerry, who has been negotiating with Zarif -- and since the weekend other foreign ministers -- for the past week, "will remain in Lausanne until at least Thursday morning to continue the negotiations," she said.
AFP
