Hurdles Loom in Iran Nuclear Talks, U.S. Official Says
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Version 0 of 1. LAUSANNE, Switzerland — A senior State Department official said Friday night that the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program had turned difficult and that an initial accord would not be possible unless the Iranian leadership made “tough decisions” over the coming days. “Yesterday’s and today’s talks have been tough and very serious,” the official said. “We’re at that point in the negotiations where we really need to see decisions being made. We will test whether that is truly possible over the next several days.” The sober tone of the assessment was starkly different from one provided Wednesday night to reporters traveling on Secretary of State John Kerry’s flight to Switzerland. At that time, the official said the Obama administration saw “a path forward” that could enable negotiators to achieve an agreement by Tuesday. On both Friday and Wednesday, the official insisted on anonymity under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters. The United States and Iran have been trying to meet a March 31 deadline for settling on the main element of an accord. Once that step is taken, a comprehensive agreement with detailed technical annexes is to be completed before the end of June. American officials have steadfastly refused to describe the remaining issues in dispute. But there have been substantial differences over the pace at which economic sanctions on Iran might be removed and what limits should be placed on the research and development of advanced types of centrifuges for enriching uranium. Iran’s officials are hard negotiators, and it is possible that the gaps may yet be bridged as the Tuesday deadline draws closer. The United States’ negotiating partners in the talks with Iran are Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. But some of Mr. Kerry’s counterparts affirmed that there were still significant differences. “It is going to require a significant move by the Iranians to reach our redline,” Philip Hammond, Britain’s foreign secretary, told reporters on Friday during a visit to Washington. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, stopped short of predicting that the Tuesday deadline would be met after holding a Friday negotiating session with Mr. Kerry. “We think an agreement is still possible, but when is another story,” Mr. Zarif said. One vexing issue is what form an initial agreement would take if it is reached this month. The Iranians have made it clear that they prefer it take the form of a general understanding while the formal, detailed agreement should come in June. But Obama administration officials have said that an accord reached this month should have a “quantitative dimension” and that specific limits should be made public so that the White House is in a better position to argued against any congressional moves to impose new sanctions. Addressing this issue, Mr. Hammond acknowledged that an accord reached this month might not take the form of a public document. Another possibility, he suggested, was that Iran and the six world powers might issue separate statements. “We envisage being able to deliver a narrative,” Mr. Hammond told a small group of reporters at the British Embassy in Washington. “Whether that is written down or not, I don’t think is the crucial issue.” “The point, I think, is momentum,” Mr. Hammond added. “This will be effectively a political statement or perhaps political statements.” Mr. Hammond is expected to join Mr. Kerry at the talks this weekend, along with foreign ministers from the other nations involved in the negotiations. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran sent a letter to President Obama and other world leaders on Thursday that he later described in a series of Twitter messages that cast Iran’s nuclear program as entirely peaceful and called for the rapid lifting of “all unjust sanctions.” Seeking to accent the positive, the State Department said “the fact that President Rouhani reached out” was “hopefully a sign that Iran is ready to make some of the tough decisions it will have to as part of a comprehensive agreement.” |