Iran Nuclear Talks Hit Final Stage

VIENNA (AP) — An Iran nuclear agreement appeared likely within hours, diplomats said late Monday after a day in which American and Iranian negotiators appeared to be struggling to clear final obstacles and looking like they'd miss their fourth deadline in less than two weeks.

Three diplomats familiar with the talks said the announcement could come early Tuesday, possibly during pre-dawn hours in Vienna. One said some of the top officials involved in the negotiation needed to leave Austria's capital in the morning, thus hastening the declaration.

The diplomats weren't authorized to speak publicly on the status of the negotiations and demanded anonymity. Their reports of a breakthrough capped a seesaw day of developments that started with high hopes for an accord. The mood soured as vexing questions including the future of a U.N. arms embargo on Iran proved troublesome.

As a midnight target for a deal approached in Vienna, diplomats said the nuts and bolts of the written nuclear accord had been settled days ago. And Iranian President Hassan Rouhani briefly raised expectations of an imminent breakthrough by proclaiming on Twitter: "Iran Deal is the victory of diplomacy & mutual respect over the outdated paradigm of exclusion & coercion. And this is a good beginning."

Minutes later, Rouhani's tweet was deleted. He then retransmitted it, adding the word "If" in front of "Iran Deal" to reflect that negotiators weren't there yet. The proposed pact would impose long-term and verifiable limits on Iran's nuclear program and provide the Islamic Republic tens of billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.

At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest said the talks were "making genuine progress," and the American negotiating team under Secretary of State John Kerry would remain in Vienna as long as the negotiations advanced. If a deal wasn't reached Monday, he said, the 20-month-old provisional constraints on Iran's enrichment of possible bomb-making material and other nuclear activity would remain in force as the diplomacy continued. The current round of talks is already in its 17th day.

Already Sunday, diplomats spoke of clinching the complete agreement within hours, only to then say the final signoff would have to come the following day. As Monday evening arrived, they offered a similar refrain.

"No deal on Monday, nuclear agreement possible on Tuesday," Iran's state-run Press TV said in a bulletin attributed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The U.N. ban on Iran importing or exporting conventional weapons wasn't clearly defined when world powers and Tehran reached a framework deal in April.

A U.S. statement issued at the time said the final agreement would result in "the comprehensive lifting of all U.N. Security Council sanctions" on Iran, which could be interpreted to include the arms embargo. But the U.S. also said at the time that "important restrictions on conventional arms and ballistic missiles" would be incorporated in any new U.N. guidelines for Iran.

Washington wants to maintain the ban on importing and exporting weapons, concerned that an Iran flush with cash from the nuclear deal would expand its military assistance for Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, Yemen's Houthi rebels, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other forces opposing America's Mideast allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Iranian leaders say the embargo must end as their forces are combating regional scourges such as the Islamic State. And they're getting support from both Russia and China, who want at least a partial lifting of the restrictions. Moscow, in particular, hopes to expand military cooperation and arms sales to Tehran, including the long-delayed transfer of S-300 advanced air defense systems — a move long opposed by the United States.

Diplomats reported at least two other issues beside the arms embargo proving difficult: How to finalize a long-stymied U.N. investigation of alleged nuclear weapons work by Tehran and Iran's demand that any U.N. Security Council resolution approving the broader deal no longer describe Iran's nuclear activities as illegal.

On the International Atomic Energy Agency's probe, the Iranians insist they have never worked on weapons and top Iranian officials say military sites and nuclear scientists are off-limits to investigators. On the legality of its program, it hopes to receive positive recognition of its diplomatic effort with the six world powers on the other side of the negotiating table — with a quick lifting of U.N. sanctions without the stain of being adjudged in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Some diplomats expressed exasperation.

"There should not be an extension in the talks," Zarif said in remarks carried by Iran's official IRNA news agency. Later, from the balcony of the ornate manor-turned-hotel hosting the talks, he told reporters that negotiators are "sleepy and overworked."

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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi contributed from Tehran.

Source: The Huffington Post

John Kerry: Iran Nuclear Talks 'Could Go Either Way'

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says nuclear negotiations with Iran are still underway ahead of a self-imposed deadline of July 7.

"We are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues," Kerry said in a Sunday press conference on the ninth day of the talks in Vienna, Austria.

Kerry reiterated that U.S. was looking for a "good deal," and it was prepared to walk away from the talks if it faced "absolute intransigence" from the Iranian government.

The secretary of state, who spoke with the press after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that negotiators are still pushing for a finalized deal by July 7th.

“At this point, this negotiation could go either way,” he said.

Read more at The Huffington Post

Iran, World Powers Reportedly Reach Tentative Agreement On Nuclear Sanctions Relief

Iranians gather at Tehran's Azadi Square (Freedom Square) on June 30, 2015, to unveil a petition in support of the Iranian team pursuing a nuclear agreement with world powers. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images) | ATTA KENARE via Getty Images

VIENNA (AP) — World powers and Iran have reached tentative agreement on sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic, among the most contentious issues in a long-term nuclear agreement that negotiators hope to clinch over the next several days, diplomats told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The annex, one of five meant to accompany the agreement, outlines which U.S. and international sanctions will be lifted and how quickly. Diplomats said senior officials of the seven-nation talks, which include U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, still had to sign off on the package.

Still, the word of significant progress indicated the sides were moving closer to a comprehensive accord that would set a decade of restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for tens of billions of dollars' in economic benefits for the Iranians.

Officials had described sanctions relief as one of the thorniest disagreements between Iran and the United States, which has led the international pressure campaign against Iran's economy. The U.S. and much of the world fears Iran's enrichment of uranium and other activity could be designed to make nuclear weapons; Iran says its program is meant only to generate power and for other peaceful purposes.

The diplomats, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on this past week's confidential negotiations in Vienna, said the sanctions annex was completed this week by experts from Iran and the six world powers it is negotiating with: the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. They did not provide details of the agreement.

A senior U.S. official did not dispute the diplomats' account but said work remained to be done before the issue could be described as finalized.

Negotiators are striving to wrap up the deal by July 7.

Along with inspection guidelines and rules governing Iran's research and development of advanced nuclear technology, the sanctions annex of the agreement had been among the toughest issues remaining to be resolved.

Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have made repeated demands for economic penalties to be lifted shortly after a deal is reached. Washington and its partners have said they'd take action after Iran verifiably complies with restrictions on enrichment and other elements of the nuclear program.

Much of the negotiation on the matter has concerned sequencing, so that both sides can legitimately claim to have gotten their way.

Several other matters related to sanctions also had posed problems.

The Obama administration cannot move too quickly to remove economic penalties because of Congress, which will have a 30-day review period for any agreement during which no sanctions can be waived.

American officials also had been struggling to separate the "nuclear-related" sanctions it is prepared to suspend from those it wishes to keep, including measures designed to counteract Iranian ballistic missile efforts, human rights violations and support for U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.

And to keep pressure on Iran, world powers had been hoping to finalize a system for snapping suspended sanctions back into force if Iran cheats on the accord. Russia has traditionally opposed any plan that would see them lose their U.N. veto power and a senior Russian negotiator said only this week that his government rejected any automatic "snapback" of sanctions.

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Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Source: The Huffington Post