World
Six world powers and Iran missed a Tuesday deadline to reach an outline accord reining in Tehran's nuclear program, extending talks into an extra day as they edged toward a deal but failed to agree crucial details such as the lifting of U.N. sanctions, writes Reuters.
The preliminary deal is a major milestone toward a final accord, with an end-June deadline, that could end the 12-year-old standoff and reduce the risk of another Middle East war. With Iran asserting its "nuclear rights" and the United States threatening on Tuesday to abandon the negotiations, the talks have been bogged down on the issues of nuclear research, the lifting of U.N. sanctions and their restoration if Iran breaches the agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said negotiators had reached a general accord on "all key aspects", according to Russia's TASS news agency, while his Iranian counterpart said a draft agreement could be prepared on Wednesday.
But a diplomat close to the talks denied that such an agreement had been reached, and a French official said Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was leaving the talks and would return from France when it was "useful". It was not clear whether Fabius’ departure was a sign of a major problem in the talks.
The six powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - aim to stop Iran from gaining the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in exchange for easing international sanctions that are crippling its economy.
The U.S. administration of President Barack Obama had committed to meeting a March 31 deadline for the outline political accord.
Negotiators have a tentative agreement on the rough outline of a possible public statement on the progress they have made so far that would also highlight areas of disagreement, diplomats close to the talks said. But they have not agreed on all the key details central to a political framework that would form the basis of a future nuclear agreement, the diplomats said.
The UK says key issues still need to be tackled at talks on Iran's nuclear programme but agrees with Iranian and Russian delegates that there is "a broad framework of understanding," reports the BBC. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "We hope to get there during the day."
However, a number of ministers have left the talks and China warned compromise was essential, otherwise "all previous efforts will be wasted". A deal would curb the nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Negotiations between the so-called P5+1 - the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany - and Iran resumed on Wednesday at Lausanne's Beau-Rivage Palace hotel after overrunning a 31 March deadline for a deal. The P5+1 deal seeks to ensure Iran could not assemble a nuclear weapon in less than a year. The Iranians insist that they have no such ambition.
Hammond told the BBC: "I think we have a broad framework of understanding, but there are still some key issues that have to be worked through. "Some of them are quite detailed and technical so there is still quite a lot of work to do but we are on it now and we'll keep going at it. "Fingers crossed, we hope to get there during the day."
