Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

‘Substantial Work’ Said to Remain in Iran Nuclear Talks

Secretary of State John Kerry met on Wednesday in Vienna with Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister.Credit...Pool photo Carolyn Kaster

VIENNA — The United States is still striving to complete a comprehensive agreement to curtail Iran’s nuclear program by the Nov. 24 deadline, though “substantial work” remains to be done, a senior State Department official said Wednesday after high-level talks.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, met here for more than six hours with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, in an effort to advance the lagging negotiations on an accord that would trade significant constraints on Iran’s nuclear activities for a lifting of onerous economic sanctions.

“We are only focused on one thing right now, and that is having a full agreement done by the 24th of November,” said the State Department official, who could not be identified under the agency’s procedures for briefing reporters. “The discussions remain very intense, very focused, very concrete.”

Iran and six world powers agreed last November on a temporary deal that froze much of Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for modest sanctions relief. That interim understanding was intended to buy time so that a more fundamental and enduring accord to roll back Iran’s nuclear efforts could be reached.

But the negotiation of a comprehensive deal has been burdened by major disagreements over the size of the enrichment program Iran would be permitted to have and how long the accord would last. With the two sides far apart, the interim agreement, which was supposed to lapse in July, was extended until Nov. 24. And some former officials say that yet another extension may be necessary so talks can continue.

“It is not realistic to complete a comprehensive agreement by Nov. 24,” said Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former senior State Department official. He added, “The best outcome at this point would be to get agreement on key elements, especially on the enrichment capacity issue, that could be cited to make the case for another extension, particularly to domestic constituencies.”

Gary Samore, a former senior National Security Council official, and president of an advocacy group called United Against Nuclear Iran, said there had been signs that the Iranians were open to such an extension.

Even achieving that, however, could prove challenging. To make an extension more palatable to congressional critics who say the temporary freeze does not restrict Iran’s nuclear activities enough, the administration may need to negotiate additional controls on their scope. But Iran, in return, might demand more sanctions relief than Washington is willing to provide.

“I think the Iranians are indicating pretty clearly they would like an extension,” Mr. Samore said. “They do not want to go back to the status quo ante where we are pursuing a new round of sanctions against them, especially at a time when the oil market is weak. And of course, we would favor an extension because it keeps the nuclear program frozen.”

Still, Mr. Samore added, “I think the negotiation over the terms of an extension could be very, very difficult.”

Assessing the prospects for a breakthrough is difficult because American officials have declined to discuss the details of what has been agreed upon or even to list the major stumbling blocks.

Video
Video player loading
U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Ashton begin nuclear talks in Vienna. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.CreditCredit...Reuters

In a news conference in Paris on Tuesday before leaving for Vienna, Mr. Kerry acknowledged he could not predict whether a nuclear accord could be achieved.

“I don’t believe it is out of reach,” he said then. “But we have some tough issues to resolve, and I am not going to prognosticate.”

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, who met with Mr. Kerry on Tuesday, told Russian television that he thought a compromise with Iran on the nuclear issue was possible but said he was not certain it could be reached by the November deadline.

“This date is not certain,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Mr. Kerry was scheduled to return to Washington on Thursday, leaving the nuclear talks in the hands of the American negotiating team and its counterparts. But he is likely to return for another high-level effort before Nov. 24.

The senior State Department official who spoke in Vienna on Wednesday, however, said that it was important to respect that deadline since it required all sides to make the hard decisions that were needed to cement an agreement.

“We’ve been chipping away at some of the issues,” the official said. “Everybody has put ideas on the table to see if we can move the ball forward.”

The official added, “We have and continue to make some progress, but there’s a substantial amount of work to be done.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Substantial Work’ Said to Remain in Iran Nuclear Talks. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT