Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair urges Kerry to take his time, make sure red lines not crossed in final agreement
Global powers upped the pressure on Iran late Sunday, warning that now was “the time” to strike an elusive deal curbing its nuclear ambitions, as the US said the fate of the talks hung in the balance.
Arriving back in Vienna ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for a comprehensive deal curtailing Iran’s nuclear program, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini both said they were close to reaching a deal, and if it was going to happen, now would be the time.
“The time is now… We are very close,” said Mogherini, adding the atmosphere was “constructive, positive.”
“I see the political will … now it is a matter of seeing all together if this political will manages to translate into political decisions,” she continued.
“All the cards are on the table, the main question is to know whether the Iranians will accept making clear commitments on what until now has not been clarified,” Fabius said.
Their German and British counterparts were also due back, along with Russia’s Sergey Lavrov.
US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that, after almost two years of negotiations and on the ninth day of these latest talks, “genuine progress” had been made.
He noted that, despite progress, “we are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues.”
After meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif three times on Sunday, the top US diplomat said the talks “could go either way.” The two men met for a fourth time Sunday evening, with deputies at their sides.
If all sides were prepared to make hard choices, then “we could get an agreement this week. But if they are not made, we will not,” Kerry warned, adding that if there was “absolute intransigence” the US would walk away.
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker told CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday that he had urged Kerry not to rush into a nuclear deal with Iran.
Corker said he told Kerry to “try to make sure that these last remaining red lines that haven’t been crossed — they’ve crossed so many — do not get crossed and, qualitatively, they don’t make it worse than where it already is.
“I would just hope again that they would take their time and finish this in the best way that they can, even though we have already gone down a bad track,” he continued.
The global powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — are trying to pin down a deal putting a nuclear bomb out of Iran’s reach in return for lifting a web of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
On one of the thorniest issues — choreographing the nuclear steps to be taken by Iran in exchange for reciprocal sanctions relief — a compromise may be emerging, at least among experts thrashing out the complex final accord.
The deal between Iran and the P5+1 would end a standoff dating back to 2002 when dissidents first revealed undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran.
Officials have stressed all week that this is the endgame, and after missing several deadlines they are not planning to extend the negotiations again.
Iran’s lead negotiator Abbas Araqchi told Iranian TV late Saturday: “If we reach an agreement that respects our red lines, then there will be a deal. Otherwise, we prefer to return home to Tehran empty-handed.”
A deal would also hold out the promise of bringing Iran back into the diplomatic fold at a time of mounting unrest in the Middle East.
Zarif said in an English YouTube message that an accord could “open new horizons to address important common challenges,” referring to the “growing menace of violent extremism and outright barbarism,” an implicit statement on the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
On Saturday it appeared that another stumbling block to the deal — a stalled UN probe into allegations of past efforts by Iran to develop the bomb — may potentially be close to being resolved too.
Speaking after a whirlwind trip to Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said the UN watchdog aimed to issue a report by year’s end on the “clarification of the issues” concerned.
Amano’s deputies were due to fly to Tehran on Sunday to discuss ways of resolving lingering questions, Iranian sources told AFP, although the IAEA declined to comment on the reported visit.
“I think it would be very difficult to imagine Secretary Kerry at this point walking away, this close to the finish line,” Iran expert Suzanne Maloney from the Brookings Institution told AFP.
“I just don’t think there’s any real likelihood that this collapses.”
As reported by The Times of Israel