Wrapping up six days of marathon nuclear talks with mixed results, Iran and six world powers yesterday prepared to issue a general statement agreeing to continue talks in a new phase aimed at reaching a final agreement to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions by the end of June, officials said last night.
Officials had set a deadline of yesterday for a framework agreement — and later softened that wording to a framework understanding — between Iran and the so-called P5+1 nations: the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
After intense negotiations, obstacles remained on uranium enrichment, where stockpiles of enriched uranium should be stored, limits on Iranian nuclear research and development, and the timing and scope of sanctions relief among other issues.
Photo: Reuters
The joint statement is to be accompanied by additional documents that outline more detailed understandings, allowing the sides to claim that enough progress has been made thus far to merit a new round, the officials said.
Iran has not yet signed off on the documents, one official said, meaning that any understanding remains unclear.
The talks have already been extended twice as part of more than a decade of diplomatic attempts to curb Tehran’s nuclear advance.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the talks on the record.
The softening of the language from a framework “agreement” to a framework “understanding” appeared due in part to opposition to a two-stage agreement from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Earlier this year, he demanded only one deal that nails down specifics and does not permit the other side to “make things difficult” by giving it wiggle room on interpretations.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, who left Lausanne on Monday, was heading back to the Swiss city, indicating that an end to the intense talks was near.
In Moscow, he told reporters: “Prospects for this round of negotiations were not bad, and I would even say good.”
Some of the P5+1’s foreign ministers joined US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif at the talks over the weekend in an intense effort to reach a political understanding on terms that would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions.
Kerry and others said the sides have made some progress, with Iran considering demands for further cuts to its uranium enrichment program, but pushing back on how long it must limit technology it could use to make atomic arms.
In addition to sticking points on research and development, differences remain on the timing and scope of sanctions removal, the officials said.
Officials in Lausanne said the sides were advancing on limits to aspects of Iran’s program to enrich uranium, which can be used to make the core of a nuclear warhead.
Western officials say the main obstacles to a deal relate to the type of restrictions on Tehran’s development of advanced centrifuges and the pace of sanctions-lifting.
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