Iran faced Western pressure on Saturday to make concessions over its atomic activities after it and six world powers failed to meet yesterday’s deadline for a deal to end the decade-old dispute, but agreed to keep talking.
The countries agreed to extend the high-stakes negotiations by four months, and let Iran access another US$2.8 billion of its cash frozen abroad during that period, though most sanctions on the Islamic Republic stayed in place.
Germany — one of the major powers trying to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear program — said that the extended talks might be the last chance for a long time to reach a peaceful solution.
Photo: Reuters
Echoing the views of other envoys, a Western diplomat said there had been some progress during nearly three weeks of marathon discussions in Vienna’s 19th century Coburg palace and that gaps in positions were not “unbridgeable.”
However, the senior diplomat added: “We cannot accept that Iran stays at current levels of enrichment.”
The six powers want Iran to significantly scale back its uranium enrichment program to make sure it cannot produce nuclear bombs. Iran says the program is entirely peaceful and wants sanctions that have severely damaged its oil-dependent economy to be lifted as soon as possible.
After years of rising tension between Iran and the West and fears of a new Middle East war, last year’s election of a pragmatist, Hassan Rouhani, as Iran’s president led to a thaw in ties that resulted in the current nuclear negotiations.
The announcement to give diplomacy until Nov. 24 came in the early hours of Saturday, a day before the deadline that Iran, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China had earlier set for an agreement.
“These few months until November could be the last and best chance for a long time to end the nuclear argument peacefully,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
“Iran must show it is willing to dispel all doubts about the peaceful nature of its nuclear program,” he added.
Under the terms of the extension of the negotiations, Iran will be able to access during this time a relatively small portion of an estimated more than US$100 billion held abroad, in return for limits to its nuclear program
It prolongs — with some adjustments — an interim deal hammered out in Geneva last year, under which Iran halted its most controversial nuclear work in exchange for some easing of sanctions. The six-month deal — which allowed Iran to receive US$4.2 billion — was designed to create time and space for the negotiation of a permanent agreement.
US officials stressed that most sanctions against Iran would remain in place for now.
“Iran will not get any more money during these four months than it did during the last six months, and the vast majority of its frozen oil revenues will remain inaccessible ... We will continue to vigorously enforce the sanctions that remain in place,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
It remains uncertain whether four more months of talks will yield a final deal, since major underlying differences remain after six rounds of meetings since February.
“We are definitely convinced it’s doable; it’s a question of political will,” the senior Western diplomat said. “I think they [Iran] really want to get this done.”
In exchange for the US$2.8 billion, Kerry said, Iran agreed to take several steps, including to keep neutralizing its most sensitive uranium stocks — uranium that has been enriched to a level of 20 percent purity — by converting it to fuel for a research reactor in Tehran used to make medical isotopes.
French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development Laurent Fabius told reporters in Cairo that major disagreements remained, though some had been resolved.
“If we had thought there was no potential for a deal, we would have stopped immediately,” he said.
Some members of the US Congress are eager to impose new and tougher sanctions on Iran. US officials said on Saturday they would continue to oppose new sanctions as long as the negotiations were underway, but would drop their opposition if the talks collapsed.
“We understand Congress’ desire to hold Iran’s feet to the fire,” one of them said.
Iran says it would be willing to delay development of an industrial uranium enrichment program for up to seven years and to keep the 19,000 centrifuges it has installed so far for this purpose, but Washington says this is still too many.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton — who leads the talks for the powers — and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a joint statement that the talks would resume in the coming weeks.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS