Fog of diplomacy settles over final stretch of Iran nuclear talks
As the Nov. 24 deadline to reach a nuclear deal nears the negotiating parties are engaged in marathon discussions.
VIENNA — US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif mostly stayed huddled in meetings behind closed doors at nuclear talks at a Vienna hotel on Nov. 21, with each canceling earlier announced plans to leave Vienna for further consultations.
Negotiators from both the United States and Iran have suggested in recent days that they would like to reach at least a framework agreement toward the comprehensive accord by the Nov. 24 deadline or shortly thereafter, rather than work on an extension of the current interim deal. But gaps on the issues of enrichment capacity, sanctions relief and the duration of a deal remained going into these latest high-stakes talks on the eve of the deadline.
“What we are all focused on now is trying to get the key principles of a deal agreed over the next 72 hours so that we can meet that important deadline,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told journalists as he arrived for talks in Vienna Nov. 21 with Kerry, Zarif, the European Union’s Catherine Ashton and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
“It is clear that both sides want to try to get a deal done, but none of us want to do a bad deal, and we are very clear that we have to get more flexibility from the Iranians,” Hammond said. “In return, we are prepared to show some flexibility on our side. But time is short. We are up against a deadline here and I think we are all working very hard to get the best possible deal on the table.”
