Diplomats gave themselves three more days to salvage an agreement with Iran that had promised to put to rest concerns over its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Foreign ministers missed a third deadline in two weeks and now have through Monday, July 13, to resolve the remaining sticking points in an accord that they say is mostly complete. Extending the talks past a July 9 cut-off means the US Congress would have 60 days to review a deal instead of 30 days, potentially delaying the lifting of sanctions. "We're making progress but it's painfully slow," UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday in Vienna before leaving the talks. He and his French and German counterparts are due to return after more of the draft text, which diplomats say is about 80 pages long, has been completed.
For energy-rich Iran, an agreement could speed its return to oil markets and lift financial restraints that have stifled its economy. For the US and its regional allies, the goal is to restrict Iran's ability to obtain nuclear weapons, which the Islamic Republic denies seeking. Fourteen days into the talks, the sides have hardened their positions on key issues of timing, reciprocity and sanctions relief. Diplomats have alternated between insisting that a deal is within reach, threatening that they're ready to leave if it's not resolved soon, and positioning themselves to blame the other side in the event of a breakdown.
Iran cautioned the US against setting and breaking deadlines. The practice amounts to "psychological war," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Friday, according to the Iranian Students News Agency. Should talks break down it's "up to them" to walk away, he said of the American negotiators.
"We are very close, but if the important, historical political decisions are not made in the next hours we won't have an agreement," European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told CNN late on Thursday. US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that "we're making real progress" but that "we are not going to sit at the negotiating table forever."
The six world powers negotiating with Iran, who have largely preserved public unity during almost two years of intense diplomacy, have split on some issues in the final stretch, and discussions have sometimes turned acrimonious.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he hoped a deal would be ready soon. His Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who broke with the West by advocating an end to an arms embargo against Iran, is expected to return to the talks on Sunday should compromises be found.
Russia, a potential arms supplier, is supporting Iran's demand for the UN embargo to be lifted. The US, whose close allies in the region such as Israel and Saudi Arabia are Iran's main rivals, has dismissed a wholesale lifting, though suggesting flexibility on the nature and duration of the embargo.
Under US legislation providing for Congress to weigh in on any deal, the review period would revert to 30 days if an agreement isn't reached until early September, after lawmakers return from their August recess.
