High-stakes Iran nuclear talks in nail-biting extension
3 April 2015 4:52 AM IST
Speaking after Iran and major powers missed a midnight deadline to agree the outlines of a potentially historic accord at talks that stretched into the small hours, Iran’s chief negotiator said the Iranians “won’t let time bind us in the talks.”
“Time is important to us but the content of the negotiations and our demands are more important,” Abbas Araghchi said in a live interview with state television from Lausanne.
The US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany want Iran to scale down its nuclear programme in order to extend the “breakout” time needed for Iran to assemble a bomb’s worth of nuclear material.
Iran denies wanting the bomb and its negotiators are under strict orders from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to refuse any curtailing of its programme without relief from painful sanctions.
Araghchi said on Wednesday a deal was impossible without a “framework for the removal of all sanctions”, but global powers want any sanctions relief to be phased and easily reversible if Iran violates the deal.
The stakes are high, with fears that failure may set the United States and Israel on a road to military action to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive.
The White House warned again yesterday that the military option to deprive the Islamic republic of nuclear arms remained “on the table”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif had raised hopes in the early hours of Wednesday morning that the framework deal might be in sight.
“Time is important to us but the content of the negotiations and our demands are more important,” Abbas Araghchi said in a live interview with state television from Lausanne.
The US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany want Iran to scale down its nuclear programme in order to extend the “breakout” time needed for Iran to assemble a bomb’s worth of nuclear material.
Iran denies wanting the bomb and its negotiators are under strict orders from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to refuse any curtailing of its programme without relief from painful sanctions.
Araghchi said on Wednesday a deal was impossible without a “framework for the removal of all sanctions”, but global powers want any sanctions relief to be phased and easily reversible if Iran violates the deal.
The stakes are high, with fears that failure may set the United States and Israel on a road to military action to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive.
The White House warned again yesterday that the military option to deprive the Islamic republic of nuclear arms remained “on the table”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif had raised hopes in the early hours of Wednesday morning that the framework deal might be in sight.
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