VIENNA: Leading diplomats racing to strike a nuclear accord with Iran have little more than two days to overcome serious disagreements that threaten the outcome of their negotiations.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif today in Vienna, where talks between world powers and the Islamic Republic entered a fifth day. They have until Nov. 24 to agree on a comprehensive deal that would curb Irans nuclear ambitions and roll back sanctions. Failure to reach an accord may embolden American and Iranian skeptics of the negotiation process.
We still have some serious gaps which were working to close, Kerry said today before meeting his German colleague, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A lot of serious work is going on by a lot of people.
Underscoring the high stakes, Kerry and Zarif yesterday reversed plans to temporarily leave the negotiations in Vienna in order to consult with other officials. They instead remained inside Viennas Palais Coburg negotiating and making phone calls to gather input from world leaders.
Kerry spoke with Arab foreign ministers today in a telephone-conference, according to a U.S. official, who added that the secretary of state also contacted his Canadian and Turkish counterparts.
The conflict over Irans nuclear program has cast the shadow of war over the Persian Gulf nation with the worlds No. 4 oil reserves. Israel and the U.S. have threatened military action to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely for energy and industrial uses, has seen its economy squeezed and oil output slashed under sanctions.
Hour of Truth
After a long 10 years of talking to Iran weve come here in Vienna to the hour of truth, Steinmeier told reporters today before meeting Kerry. Even as the sides are closer than ever to reaching a deal, wide gaps preventing agreement on key issues mean negotiators could still fall short of an accord, he said.
The speed at which sanctions hurting Irans economy are rolled back under a possible deal remained one of the main sticking points, four diplomats told Bloomberg News when talks began this week. Irans capacity to produce fissile material is the other main point of disagreement, they said.
An accord already exists in draft version, containing a four- or five-page introduction followed by 30 to 40 pages of details, according to a senior Iranian diplomat cited by the Islamic Student news Agency.
Lavrov Trip
All the elements of an agreement are already on the table, and the task of diplomats now is to correctly put together a package, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday in Moscow, predicting that common sense will prevail and a compromise will be reached.
Lavrov will probably travel to participate in talks before the deadline expires, Russias Tass news agency reported today.
Barring a deal, diplomats may extend their temporary agreement for a second time in order to prolong negotiations. That strategy carries the risk that opponents of the talks in both Iran and the U.S. may derail the process.
Irans Khorasan newspaper reported today, citing an unnamed official familiar with the negotiations, that Zarif has taken a softer tone at this round of talks a departure from the shouting that it said had characterized past rounds.
Oil Slide
Iran has signaled its willing to continue allowing intrusive international inspections of its nuclear facilities even if theres no deal this weekend, according to Western officials. The U.S. is committed to pause its efforts to reduce Iranian oil sales under the interim accord thats currently due to expire on Nov. 24, the White House said in a statement yesterday.
The recent slide in oil prices has dealt another blow to Iran. Its also squeezing Russia, another country targeted by Western sanctions, which has signed deals to buy oil from Iran and sell nuclear reactors.
Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, the worlds biggest oil producer and one of the staunchest regional opponents of Iran, has met with both Kerry and Lavrov in the past two days. After talks in Moscow yesterday, Lavrov said they agreed that oil prices, which have dropped almost 20 percent in two months, shouldnt be influenced by politics.
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