VIENNA: A deadline for resolving a 12-year-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme may be extended from Monday until March, because of sharp disagreements between Tehran and Western powers, officials said yesterday.
The US and its allies had hoped would be the culmination of months of difficult diplomacy between Iran and the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
The aim is to remove sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic programme, but talks have long been deadlocked: The timing for lifting sanctions and future scope of Iran’s uranium enrichment are key stumbling blocks.
UN nuclear chief Yukiya Amano highlighted another hurdle: Iran has yet to explain suspected atomic bomb research to the agency, one of the conditions of the six powers for lifting sanctions. “Important points of difference remain,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a joint news conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who met him in Paris on his way to Vienna.Reuters
