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Deadline Is Extended in Iran Nuclear Talks Deadline Is Extended in Iran Nuclear Talks
(about 5 hours later)
VIENNA — The United States and its negotiating partners announced on Tuesday that they were extending an interim nuclear accord with Iran until July 7 to allow talks on a final agreement to continue. VIENNA — As a high-level team of Iranian officials flew here on Tuesday for what appears to be an intensive final week of negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear accord, President Obama issued a warning that he was prepared to walk away from any agreement with a verification regime that consisted of “a few inspectors wandering around every once in a while.”
Tuesday had been the deadline for completing an enduring agreement, but negotiators have been saying for several days that the target date was unrealistic. The return here of Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, was notable because it followed high-level consultations in Tehran. He was accompanied by Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, who has been ill but played a pivotal role in previous rounds of talks.
The extension of the interim agreement, the “Joint Plan of Action,” will maintain the freeze on much of Iran’s nuclear program and continue modest sanctions relief while negotiators struggle to complete a final accord. Hossein Fereydoun, a younger brother of President Hassan Rouhani, who has appeared here at other turning points, was also on Mr. Zarif’s plane.
The announcement came several hours after Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s chief diplomat and lead negotiator, returned from a brief trip to Tehran for consultations with the Iranian leadership. He then began his day with a one-on-one meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, who described the private discussion as “a good conversation.” “I am here to get a final deal, and I think we can,” Mr. Zarif said after a one-on-one meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry.
The United States was looking for signs that Mr. Zarif had arrived with more flexible negotiating instructions, but he insisted that nothing had changed. As a first step in what the parties hope is a final push to an agreement, Iran and the six world powers in the talks extended to July 7 an interim nuclear accord that was set to expire on Tuesday.
“I didn’t go to get a mandate,” Mr. Zarif said before a wider meeting that included senior officials on both sides. “I already had a mandate to negotiate, and I am here to get a final deal, and I think we can.” The interim agreement, called the Joint Plan of Action, freezes much of Iran’s nuclear program in return for modest sanctions relief.
The final accord would constrain Iran’s program for more than a decade in return for the removal or suspension of sanctions. American officials have said for some time that they hoped to finish the agreement by July 9, in time to submit it to Congress, which would then begin a 30-day review period. On Monday, some Iranian officials in Tehran indicated they had that goal in mind, too. American officials have said for some time that they hoped to finish the agreement by July 9, in time to submit it to Congress, which would then begin a 30-day review period.
If an accord is finished later this summer, the review period would double because of Congress’s summer recess, and the Obama administration is concerned that critics could use the additional time to mobilize opposition to the agreement. It would also force Iran to wait longer for the sanctions relief it is seeking. If an accord is finished later this summer, the review period would double because of Congress’s summer recess, giving critics in both countries more time to mobilize opposition.
The latest round of negotiations began last week under a cloud after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, appeared to back away from central elements of a preliminary accord reached two months ago in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Mr. Obama’s comments followed objections by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to highly intrusive inspections and came at a moment when the White House was trying to respond to criticism by Republicans, and a few Democrats, that it was too eager to get the accord.
After the United States and its negotiating partners insisted that the Lausanne framework must remain the basis of an agreement, Mr. Zarif flew to Tehran on Sunday night for consultations with his nation’s senior leaders. Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who wrote the congressional review legislation, has said it is vital that the deal provide for intrusive verification, and he said that the administration should take as much time as necessary. A bipartisan group of Iran experts, including some of Mr. Obama’s former top aides, made a similar appeal last week.
In an indication that the talks are likely to intensify, Mr. Zarif arrived here Tuesday morning with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, and Hossein Fereydoun, a younger brother of President Hassan Rouhani. Mr. Salehi, who recently underwent surgery, played an important role with Ernest J. Moniz, the United States energy secretary, in negotiating the Lausanne accord. Mr. Obama, coming off a week of historic, confidence-building victories at home, made a point at a news conference in Washington of stressing his determination to get an effective deal.
In a post on Twitter on Tuesday that appeared to raise Iranians’ hope that an accord might finally be at hand, Ayatollah Khamenei praised his negotiators as “trustworthy, committed, brave and faithful.” “Given past behavior on the part of Iran, that simply can’t be a declaration by Iran and a few inspectors wandering around every once in a while,” he said. “That’s going to have to be a serious, rigorous verification mechanism. And that, I think, is going to be the test as to whether we get a deal or not.”
In marked contrast to previous days, neither side talked openly about red lines or suggested the other had backtracked. But difficult negotiations still loomed ahead. In Tehran, Mr. Rouhani said that it was up to the United States to keep its word. While he, too, was talking tough, the promise that got him elected — a vow to get Western-led sanctions against Iran lifted — hangs in the balance in the next few days.
Mr. Zarif said when he arrived at the airport here, “I feel the negotiations have reached a very sensitive stage.” “If we reach a deal, both sides should be committed to it,” Mr. Rouhani said, the state news agency IRNA reported. “If the other side breaches the deal, we will go back to the old path, stronger than what they can imagine.”
“What is needed more than anything is the other side’s political will, which will make the job of reaching an acceptable result easier,” he added. The latest round of negotiations began last week under a cloud after Ayatollah Khamenei appeared to back away from central elements of a preliminary accord reached two months ago in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
The talks involve the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia. Mr. Kerry met Tuesday afternoon with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. After the United States and its negotiating partners insisted that the Lausanne framework must remain the basis of an agreement, Mr. Zarif flew to Tehran on Sunday night for consultations. With American officials looking for signs that he had returned with more flexible negotiating instructions, Mr. Zarif insisted that nothing had changed.
“I didn’t go to get a mandate,” Mr. Zarif said. “I already had a mandate to negotiate.”
Any final accord would constrain Iran’s program for more than a decade in return for lifting, and ultimately revoking, the network of American, European and United Nations sanctions that have hobbled Iran’s economy. The talks involve the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia.
In a Twitter post on Tuesday that raised Iranians’ hopes an accord might finally be at hand, Ayatollah Khamenei praised his negotiators as “trustworthy, committed, brave and faithful.” That seemed to be a signal to his right-wing critics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps not to criticize Mr. Zarif and his team.