Negotiations over Iran nuclear deal move to next level
20 Feb 2014 4:46 AM IST
Expectations were not high, however, for the scheduled three-day Vienna meeting between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, the first in a likely series of tricky encounters.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday he was ‘not optimistic’ and that he expected the talks to ‘lead nowhere’, although he also said he was not against the negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking after a dinner Monday with the chief negotiator for the six powers, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, was more upbeat.
‘We believe we can reach an agreement and we have come here with the political will to reach a final agreement,’ Zarif was quoted by Iran’s ISNA news agency as saying, adding however that it ‘will take time’.
‘It is probably as likely that we won’t get an agreement as it is that we will,’ said one senior US administration official. ‘But these negotiations are the best chance we have ever had.’
Iran has long been suspected of seeking atomic weapons, despite its denials, and the US and Israel, widely assumed to have a formidable nuclear arsenal itself, have never ruled out military action.
Foreign ministers from the seven countries struck a deal in Geneva on 24 November that was widely hailed as an enormous breakthrough after a decade of failed diplomatic efforts and rising tensions.
Under the accord, which took effect on 20 January, Iran scaled back certain nuclear activities in exchange for minor relief from painful sanctions and a promise of no new sanctions.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday he was ‘not optimistic’ and that he expected the talks to ‘lead nowhere’, although he also said he was not against the negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking after a dinner Monday with the chief negotiator for the six powers, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, was more upbeat.
‘We believe we can reach an agreement and we have come here with the political will to reach a final agreement,’ Zarif was quoted by Iran’s ISNA news agency as saying, adding however that it ‘will take time’.
‘It is probably as likely that we won’t get an agreement as it is that we will,’ said one senior US administration official. ‘But these negotiations are the best chance we have ever had.’
Iran has long been suspected of seeking atomic weapons, despite its denials, and the US and Israel, widely assumed to have a formidable nuclear arsenal itself, have never ruled out military action.
Foreign ministers from the seven countries struck a deal in Geneva on 24 November that was widely hailed as an enormous breakthrough after a decade of failed diplomatic efforts and rising tensions.
Under the accord, which took effect on 20 January, Iran scaled back certain nuclear activities in exchange for minor relief from painful sanctions and a promise of no new sanctions.
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