'Ways to go' in Iran nuclear talks as time runs short
LAUSANNE - Agence France-Presse
US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, holds a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, over Iran's nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. AP Photo
The US hunkered down Tuesday with Iran for crunch talks while warning
that key disagreements remain ahead of a March 31 deadline to agree the
outlines of a major nuclear deal.
"There is no way around
it, we still have a ways to go," a senior US official involved in the
talks in the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne said Tuesday.
The
deal being sought by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian
counterpart will, they hope, convince the world that Iran will not
develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian programme.
The
Islamic republic, which has seen its relations with the West thaw
somewhat since President Hassan Rouhani replaced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in
2013, strenuously denies wanting the bomb.
The accord
would involve Iran agreeing to scale down its nuclear activities to
within strict limits in return for relief from sanctions suffocating its
economy.
If they manage it and the accord holds, both
sides hope it will end a 12-year standoff and potentially help normalise
Iran's international relations at a particularly volatile time in the
Middle East.
"Iran still needs to make some very tough and
necessary choices to address the significant concerns that remain about
its nuclear programme," a second US official said Monday.
"We're
trying to get there. But quite frankly, we still do not know if we will
be able to," the official said, likening the months of negotiations to a
"rollercoaster".
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif and Kerry held almost five hours of talks on Monday before Zarif
went to and from Brussels -- while Kerry went for a bike ride -- to meet
European foreign ministers and EU foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini.
Zarif and Kerry met again on Tuesday morning.
Political directors from the other five powers involved -- Russia,
China, Britain, France and Germany -- began arriving in Lausanne on
Tuesday and were due to meet on Wednesday, the EU said.
Critics
in the United States and in Iran's arch foe Israel, widely assumed to
have nuclear weapons itself, fear that the mooted restrictions on Iran's
nuclear programme won't go far enough.
In Washington a
political storm is raging with 47 Republican senators last week writing
to Iran's leaders telling them that Congress could alter any deal and
that a future president could tear it up.
US President
Barack Obama, a Democrat, is also fighting to stop the Republicans
bringing new legislation that would force him to submit any deal to
Congress for approval.
In Iran though, parliamentary
speaker Ali Larijani said Monday that lawmakers would not block any deal
as long as it is approved by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"We don't have problems like those in the United States," Larijani said.
Two deadlines to get a deal in July and November were missed but the Obama administration can hardly afford to extend yet again.
What
might emerge in Lausanne by the end of the month -- or possibly this
week -- is unclear, but a "concrete understanding" is crucial, expert
Ali Vaez from the International Crisis Group told AFP.
"If
there is an agreement (this month) I don't see how it can be meaningful
without some quantitive measures," the first US official said.
Officials on both sides say that some progress
has been made in what would be a highly complex agreement, but that
crucial gaps remain.
These include the scale of Iran's
uranium enrichment capacities -- which can make nuclear fuel but also
the core of a bomb -- the accord's duration and the pace at which
sanctions on Iran would be lifted.
"We need clarity on the
way in which sanctions will be lifted and what the guarantees will be
for applying the deal," Zarif said Sunday.
