French envoy says Iran nuke deal likely to miss June deadline

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

France's ambassador to the United States has warned that a final deal on Iran's nuclear programme may miss another deadline, as the date to chalk out a final agreement with Tehran inches closer.

At a public session with fellow ambassadors from Britain and Germany at the Atlantic Council, Ambassador Gerard Araud said it was very likely that they would not have an agreement by the end of June or even after June, reports The Washington Times.

However, Arnaud's fellow diplomats played down the delay in reaching a final nuclear deal with Iran, with Peter Wittig, German ambassador to the U.S., saying that the delay was "fairly normal" as the world powers had "immensely complicated technical issues to clarify."

The statement came almost two months after P5+1 nations, including the U.S., France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany struck a framework deal with Iran on April 2. Following the preliminary negotiations, the White House had said that it was "confident" that a final deal would be reached by June 30 however; finalizing the finer details of the deal has slowed the process.

Any further delay in reaching an agreement may mean additional troubles for U.S. President Barack Obama as he faces strong opposition from many on Capitol Hill to the Iranian deal.