Iran nuclear deal ‘close’ as US says talks in final stages
Hopes were raised of a deal between the United States and Iran within days after both sides reported progress in talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Ned Price, a US state department spokesman, said: “Our assessment is that we are in the midst of the very final stages of . . . a complex negotiation with the key stakeholders here.”
Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s lead negotiator, tweeted: “After weeks of intensive talks, we are closer than ever to an agreement; nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, though.”
France said that decision time was only days away on reviving a 2013 deal that the US left four years ago under President Trump, who called Iran’s commitment to peaceful nuclear energy “a lie” and the deal “a giant fiction”. Despite the Biden administration’s overtures, Iran has been enriching uranium beyond levels permitted in the original deal.
Indirect talks between Iran and America on reviving the tattered agreement resumed last week after a ten-day hiatus and officials from the other parties to the accord — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — have shuttled between the two sides as they seek to close gaps. Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by western powers.
“We have reached tipping point now. It’s not a matter of weeks, it’s a matter of days,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, told parliament, adding that western nations as well as Russia and China had agreed on the outlines of the accord.
“Political decisions are needed from the Iranians,” Le Drian warned. “Either they trigger a serious crisis in the coming days or they accept the agreement, which respects the interests of all parties.” The moment of truth was approaching “if we want Iran to respect its [nuclear] nonproliferation commitments and, in exchange, for the United States to lift sanctions”.
Iran has demanded a US guarantee of no more sanctions, while western powers insist on verifiable restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear activity. The original deal curbed Iran’s enrichment of uranium to make it harder for it to develop material for nuclear weapons.
