Tehran: As talks continue over key sticking points, Iran nuclear deal negotiators seem posed to miss Tuesday's deadline, US officials suggest according to reports.
June 30, that is, Tuesday is the deadline for Iran and six world powers (p5+1) to reach the final deal, a framework for which was already agreed upon in April.
However, given the past deadlines, even today's deadline is set to be missed and nuke negotiators are expected to continue discussing the key points, however no one is in the favour of a “long term extension of the deadline”.
After meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that there was a possibility of extending the deadline marginally but “no long term extension”.
“As I said this morning we stick to the deadline of the 30/06; we are ready to interpret it in a flexible way as we did already in Lausanne. If we need to have a couple of additional days more, it's not the end of the world. But it is very clear that the deadline is going to stay end of June / beginning of July,” she told reporters in Vienna on Sunday.
Asked about the chances for a deal, Federica Mogherini told reporters: "It's going to be tough ... but not impossible."
Also according to reports, a US official acknowledged Sunday that Iran nuclear talks will go past their June 30 target date, as Iran's foreign minister prepared to head home for consultations before returning to push for a breakthrough.
The United States insists on more intrusive monitoring than Iran is ready to give. With these and other disputes still unresolved, the likelihood that the Tuesday target deadline for an Iran nuclear deal could slip was increasingly growing even before the US confirmation.
The dispute over access surfaced again Sunday, with Iranian Gen. Masoud Jazayeri saying that any inspection by foreigners of Iran's military centers is prohibited.
He said the attempt by the U.S. and its allies to "obtain Iran's military information for years ... by the pressure of sanctions" will not succeed.
But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who joined the talks Friday, said Iran's "nuclear activities, no matter where they take place," must be verifiable.
Officials said they could not speculate on how many days' extension the talks would need. But Zarif told reporters that he planned to come back only on Tuesday, the day the negotiations were originally supposed to end with a deal.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Zarif met in Vienna for their third encounter since Saturday. The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany came - and then went, or planned to leave, in another reflection that the sides were not yet close to a deal.
For weeks, all seven nations at the negotiating table insisted that Tuesday remains the formal deadline for a deal. But with time running out, a senior U.S. official acknowledged that was unrealistic.
"Given the dates, and that we have some work to do ... the parties are planning to remain in Vienna beyond June 30 to continue working," said the official, who demanded anonymity in line with State Department practice.
With Agency Inputs
