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Iran nuclear talks extended to 2015 Iran nuclear talks extended to 2015 after failure at Vienna negotiations
(about 2 hours later)
Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme have been extended until the end of June, but with the hope that a framework will be agreed within three months, Britain’s foreign secretary has said. Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme have been extended until the end of June next year in the hope that the broad outlines of a deal can be agreed within three months.
Speaking after the conclusion of a week of talks in Vienna between six world powers and Iran, Philip Hammond said there had been “significant progress”, but the two sides had fallen short of reaching a comprehensive agreement by the deadline on Monday night. The extension was announced on Monday after nine months of negotiations culminated in a week of talks in Vienna that failed to close gaps between Iran and a six-nation negotiating group over the scale of a future Iranian programme and the speed with which international sanctions would be lifted.
He said the negotiations would resume with the same intensity next month. “I think we’re all clear that we need to take the momentum that has been generated over the last month or so and we need to keep moving with it. We can’t afford to stop now,” Hammond said. Talks will resume next month to try to consolidate progress made in the Austrian capital and to continue the search for ways to bridge the remaining differences.
“All parties agreed we would maintain momentum, that the negotiations will go on. There will be further meetings in December and our clear target is to reach a headline agreement, an agreement on substance in the next three months or so.” “I think we’re all clear that we need to take the momentum that has been generated over the last month or so and we need to keep moving with it. We can’t afford to stop now,” Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said. “There will be further meetings in December and our clear target is to reach a headline agreement, an agreement on substance in the next three months or so.”
Arrangements agreed last year to stop an escalation of the nuclear crisis by freezing the Iranian programme and imposing sanctions will be extended until 30 June. But Hammond stressed that the aim was to secure a broad accord well before then, leaving the remaining time to iron out technical details for a final formal agreement. Iranian officials said the Vienna talks appeared to be making good progress as late as Sunday morning and that the negotiators were beginning to draft the text of an agreement, but by the afternoon western positions hardened. “There was a change of course on Sunday. We don’t know why,” an official said.
“I think we are beginning to understand each other and each other’s positions and the challenges that we all face. Everyone is going to have to show some flexibility to get an agreement,” he said. Emerging from the hotel that was the venue of the week’s talks, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius said: “In the course of the past few days, some new ideas came up. They clearly require a very detailed technical assessment because these are complex concepts.”
The talks in Vienna included the US secretary of state, John Kerry, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and their counterparts from the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China in an attempt to reach an agreement to on the curtail Iran’s nuclear capabilities in return for the lifting of some of the sanctions against the country. His German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said: “Nobody came out of these negotiations feeling depressed.”
The sticking points in Vienna were believed to be the uranium enrichment capacity Iran would be permitted for the duration of a deal, and the sequence of and speed at which sanctions would be lifted. Steinmeier also hinted that the demands of other Middle East states, which were not represented in Vienna, could have added to the complexity and difficulty of the talks. “We bear responsibility not just for us six but for many states in the world … that have legitimate security concerns about the development of the Iranian nuclear programme,” he said.
All seven foreign ministers assembled in a central Vienna hotel on Monday for a plenary session chaired by the former EU foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton, to try to agree on how to keep the negotiations going. An extension could be perilous for the long and complex diplomatic effort to resolve the 12-year standoff over that programme. A new US Congress is scheduled to take office on 6 January. It will be dominated by Republicans who criticise the diplomacy as an excuse for Iran to fend off new sanctions while keeping its nuclear infrastructure intact. The Republicans have threatened to impose new sanctions, which could trigger a backlash from hardliners in Tehran who have been equally critical of the negotiations.
On Sunday, Hammond had promised a “last big push”, but said negotiators were still a long way apart. An escalation could reverse the progress made in an interim deal last November which froze sanctions and the Iranian programme. Under that agreement, known as the joint plan of Action (JPOA), Iran was able to draw on some of its assets frozen in western accounts.
Hammond said those arrangements would be extended until 30 June, with Iran continuing to draw $700m (£445m) a year. But he stressed that the aim was to secure a broad accord well before that, leaving the remaining time to iron out technical details for a final formal agreement.
“I think we are beginning to understand each other and each others positions and the challenges that we all face. Everyone is going to have to show some flexibility to get an agreement,” he said.
Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said: “Both sides now know what their real positions, incentives of success, and disincentives of failure are. The window between now and when the new Congress takes power is the best opportunity to clinch the elusive deal.”