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Friday March 29, 2024

Early to tell if Iran deal sealed: Kerry

US says there’s a way to give UN access to Iran sites

By our correspondents
June 30, 2015
VIENNA: US Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Monday it was too soon to tell if a nuclear deal with Iran is possible as he awaited the return of Iran’s foreign minister from consultations in Tehran.
“We’re just working and it’s too early to make any judgements,” Kerry told reporters in Vienna following a weekend of intense talks with counterparts from five other major powers and Iran.
In a possible sign meanwhile of progress, Russian Foreign Minister Serg1ei Lavrov said that he would arrive on Tuesday, coinciding with the expected return of his Iranian opposite number Mohammad Javad Zarif.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, speaking in New York, said he would be back in Vienna this week. It was unclear when his British, German or Chinese counterparts might follow suit.
Over the weekend officials from both sides made clear that their Tuesday deadline to nail down a deal was highly unlikely to be met, although they said they would only extend by several days.
Zarif flew back home on Sunday night, as did many of the other ministers.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke for many late on Sunday when she insisted there would be no formal months-long extension, saying “postponement is not an option”. “I would say that the political will is there. I’ve seen it from all sides,” Mogherini said, adding “we have conditions now to close the deal”.
In April Iran and the P5+1 group — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — agreed on the main outlines of a deal that they hope will end a 13-year standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Under the framework, Iran will dramatically scale down its atomic activities in order to make any drive to make a weapon — an ambition it denies having — all but impossible.
This includes slashing the number of centrifuges enriching uranium, which can be used for nuclear fuel but also in a bomb, reducing its uranium stockpile and altering the Arak reactor.
In return, the powers have said they will progressively ease sanctions that have suffocated Iran’s economy, but while retaining the option to reimpose them if Iran violates the agreement.
But turning the 505-word joint statement agreed in April in Lausanne, Switzerland into a fully-fledged, highly technical document of several dozen pages has proved hard work.
“It sounds easy. but it’s difficult,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Sunday.
Key sticking points are thought to include the pace and timing of sanctions relief, the mechanism for their “snapback” and Iran’s future development of newer, faster centrifuges.
Another thorny topic is role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) watchdog, whose chief Yukiya Amano met Kerry on Monday and who has been spotted several times entering the luxury Viennese hotel where the talks are being held.
The UN watchdog already keeps close tabs on Iran’s nuclear activities, with between four and 10 inspectors in Iran on any given day, accounting for every ounce of nuclear material and keeping facilities under constant surveillance.
Under the mooted deal, it will be up to the IAEA to verify that Iran really does reduce its capacities, and also to make sure it does not cheat in the future.
Meanwhile, Global powers negotiating with Iran have put forward proposals to give the UN atomic watchdog access to all suspect Iranian sites as part of the outlines of a deal, a senior US official said on Monday.
“We have worked out a process that we believe will ensure that the IAEA has the access it needs,” the administration official told reporters.
“The entry point isn’t we must be able to get into every military site, because the United States of America wouldn’t allow anybody to get into every military site, so that’s not appropriate,” the official said.