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US and Iran resume nuclear talks in Geneva ahead of deadline US and Iran resume 'substantive' nuclear talks in Geneva as deadline looms
(about 4 hours later)
A month out from a nuclear deal deadline, top US and Iranian diplomats gathered in Geneva Saturday in an effort to bridge differences over how quickly to ease economic sanctions on Tehran and how significantly the Iranians must open up military facilities to international inspections. A month out from a nuclear deal deadline, top US and Iranian diplomats gathered in Geneva on Saturday in an effort to bridge differences over how quickly to ease economic sanctions on Tehran and how significantly the Iranians must open up military facilities to international inspections.
The talks between US secretary of state John Kerry and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were likely to extend into Sunday, a negotiating round that officials described as the most substantive since world powers and Iran clinched a framework pact in April.The talks between US secretary of state John Kerry and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were likely to extend into Sunday, a negotiating round that officials described as the most substantive since world powers and Iran clinched a framework pact in April.
That agreement, however, left big questions unanswered, which weeks of subsequent technical discussions have done little to resolve. Kerry and Zarif met for six hours on Saturday, trying to overcome obstacles to a final nuclear agreement. They were the first substantive talks since Iran struck an interim accord with the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China on 2 April.
Asked about completing the full accord by 30 June, Zarif said: “We will try.” “Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Zarif, along with their teams, had a thorough and comprehensive discussion of all of the issues today,” a senior State Department official said, without elaborating.
World powers believe they have secured Iran’s acquiescence to a combination of nuclear restrictions that would fulfill their biggest goal: keeping Iran at least a year away from bomb-making capability for at least a decade. But they are less clear about how they’ll ensure Iran fully adheres to any agreement. One of the issues still to be resolved is the push by the world powers for international access to Iran’s military sites and its team of atomic experts. Tehran wants sanctions to be lifted immediately after a deal is reached.
Various Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, have publicly vowed to limit access to or even block monitors from sensitive military sites and nuclear scientists suspected of previous involvement in covert nuclear weapons efforts. A senior US official said earlier there had been substantial progress in negotiations in Vienna in recent weeks on drafting a political agreement and three technical annexes on curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The US says such access must be guaranteed or there will be no final deal. A report Friday by the UN nuclear agency declared work essentially stalled on its multiyear probe of Iran’s past activities. The US States has said it will not extend the talks beyond the 30 June deadline.
The Iranians aren’t fully satisfied, either. “We really do believe we can get it done by [June] 30th and we’re not contemplating an extension. We just aren’t,” said the official travelling with Kerry to Geneva, adding that Kerry’s schedule for June had been cleared to focus on the talks.
The unresolved issues include the pace at which the United States and other countries will provide Iran relief from international sanctions – Tehran’s biggest demand – and how to “snap back” punitive measures into place if the Iranians are caught cheating. Asked before Saturday’s talks about completing the full accord by 30 June, Zarif said: “We will try.”
President Barack Obama has used the “snapback” mechanism as a main defense of the proposed pact from sharp criticism from Congress and some American allies. France has demanded more stringent restrictions on the Iranians and indicated discussions are likely to slip into July. Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi also warned that the deadline might need to be extended.
And exactly how rapidly the sanctions on Iran’s financial, oil and commercial sectors would come off in the first place lingers as a sore point between Washington and Tehran. Kerry was due to visit Paris on Monday after a quick trip to Madrid on Sunday. A western diplomat said inspections of military sites by United Nations watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and access to Iran’s scientists were critical to checking whether Iran was pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Speaking ahead of Kerry’s talks with Zarif, senior State Department officials described Iranian transparency and access, and questions about sanctions, as the toughest matters remaining. “If the IAEA can’t have access to [the scientists] or the military sites then it’s a problem,” the diplomat said. “The IAEA needs sufficient access quickly to those sites to ensure things don’t just disappear.”
They cited “difficult weeks” since the 2 April framework reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, but said diplomats and technical experts are getting back on a “smooth path”. The State Department official took a similar view, saying without access “we’re not going to sign” a deal.
None of the officials were authorized to be quoted by name and they demanded anonymity. Iran denies any ambition to develop a nuclear weapon and says its programme is purely peaceful.
Iran insists it is solely interested in peaceful energy, medical and research purposes, though many governments around the world suspect it of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions. The US estimates the Iranians are currently less than three months away from assembling enough nuclear material for a bomb if they chose to covertly develop one. “The issue of interviews with nuclear scientists is generally off the table as well as the inspection of military sites,” Araqchi told reporters as he arrived for the talks with Kerry. “How additional protocol would be implemented is still a matter of disagreement that we are still talking about.”
Joining Kerry and Zarif in Switzerland was US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. American nuclear negotiator Wendy Sherman and her Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi attended, too. European Union negotiator Helga Schmid sat in as well. Iran’s demand that sanctions be rescinded immediately after a deal is also holding up a settlement as the powers have said they can only be removed in staggered phases.
Tehran-based analyst Saeed Laylaz said he expected a deal to be finalised despite resistance from opponents in Iran and the US.
“Neither America nor Iran have a choice but to reach a deal,” he told Reuters. “Failure to reach a deal will fuel tension in the region.”
Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department official now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said an agreement was likely some time in July.
“The most difficult compromises have already been made,” he said. “But the Iranians could overplay their hand on the incorrect assumption that Obama needs a deal more than they do.”