VIENNA: Iran and six world powers relaunched talks yesterday to try to salvage a deal on Tehran’s nuclear activity by a July deadline.
With time running short if a risky extension of the nuclear talks is to be avoided, negotiators face formidable challenges to bridge gaps in positions over the future scope of Iran’s nuclear programme in less than five weeks.
The talks, coordinated by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, stumbled during the last round in mid-May, when each side accused the other of making unrealistic demands.
There was little indication whether the sides had moved toward overcoming the deadlock in their initial session yesterday. A spokesman for Ashton said only that talks focused on “elements of text that could be part of the final agreement”.
“We are certainly very realistic,” Michael Mann told reporters. “And we hope the Iranian side is as well ... I think things are moving forward.”
Talks are scheduled to last until Friday and resume some time next month before the July 20 deadline.
The powers’ overarching goal is to force Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment programme, denying it any capability to move quickly to production of a nuclear bomb. Iran denies any such ambition and demands crippling economic sanctions, eased slightly in recent months, be lifted as part of any settlement, something that western governments are loath to do too soon.
The sides also must resolve other complex issues, including the extent of UN nuclear watchdog monitoring of Iranian nuclear sites, how long any agreement should run and the future of Iran’s planned Arak research reactor, a potential source of plutonium for atomic bombs.
“We don’t have illusions about how hard it will be to close those gaps, though we do see ways to do so,” a senior US official said on Monday, signalling the pace of diplomacy would intensify in the days and weeks ahead.
However, sounding a hopeful note after a bilateral US-Iranian meeting in Geneva last week, the official said that “we are engaged in a way that makes it possible to see how we could reach an agreement.”
In Tehran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said: “If the other parties enter in negotiations with realistic views, the possibility of a final agreement exists. But if they act irrationally, we will act in accordance to our national rights.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated that Iran still needed to make compromises for any deal with the six powers to be possible.
Diplomatic sources say that it is increasingly likely Iran will seek an extension of the talks deadline. But Western officials insisted the focus remained on sealing the deal by late next month, noting that any extension must be agreed by all sides and would likely be short.
REUTERS
