'Narrowing some differences' in nuclear talks: Iran

Iran's lead negotiator in nuclear talks with world powers said both sides were inching closer on some issues as they today sought to intensify discussions on reaching a definitive agreement before a July deadline.

 

"On certain questions we have narrowed our differences," Abbas Araqchi told Iranian media late yesterday after a first day of talks in Vienna that were expected to wrap up later today.

 

The negotiations, aiming to settle a decade-old standoff and so avert a dangerous escalation, remained however "difficult and complicated", Mehr news agency quoted Araqchi as saying.

 

He gave no details. He added that the next round between Iran and five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany- the fourth in 2014- would take place in mid-May.

 

A senior US administration official involved in the talks said last week that the negotiators hoped to make enough progress in this round to begin drafting a deal in May.

 

In November, the two sides reached an interim deal under which Iran froze certain parts of its nuclear activities in return for minor relief from painful Western sanctions.

 

But Iran has not permanently dismantled any of its nuclear equipment and can fully reactivate its facilities if it wishes when the deal expires on July 20.

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry told US lawmakers Monday that the theoretical period needed for Iran to produce a weapon's worth of bomb material- if it chose to do so- was "about two months".

 

In order to greatly extend this "break-out" time, the six powers want the final deal to see Iran reduce permanently, or at least long-term, the scope of its programme.

 

The deal may involve Iran slashing the number of centrifuges- used to enrich nuclear material- changing the design of a new reactor at Arak and giving UN inspectors more oversight.

 

Other outstanding thorny issues include Iran's continued research and development of ever more advanced centrifuges and the Islamic republic's ballistic missile programme.

 

Any agreement will need to be sold to sceptical hardliners both in the United States and to Iran's arch enemy Israel, widely assumed to have a nuclear arsenal itself.