Iran’s Hassan Rouhani gives his most upbeat view yet of nuke talks
TEHRAN: Iran's president on Thursday offered his most optimistic assessment yet of ongoing talks to resuscitate his country's nuclear deal with world powers, claiming there had been "major" agreement among diplomats even as other nations involved suggested challenges remain.
The comments by President Hassan Rouhani come as Iran prepares for a June 18 election to determine who will replace the relatively moderate cleric. Saving his signature atomic accord before the vote could boost reformist and moderate candidates backing Rouhani's agenda in an election in which many believe hardliners already hold an edge.
Speaking at a ceremony inaugurating several petrochemical projects, Rouhani asserted that solutions to "major issues like sanctions" had been agreed to by diplomats, while other issues remained under discussion. "We have taken a major and big step and the main agreement has Rouhani said.
That comment came just as Mikhail Ulyanov, a Russian diplomat involved in the talks, tweeted that it "is obvious now that the Vienna talks will not be completed by May 21 as the participants hoped." He described been done," the situation as "regrettable but not dramatic." "May 21 wasn't a deadline but a target date. It helped us not to forget about time pressure," Ulyanov wrote. "The talks will continue until successful outcome." That mirrored comments Wednesday by Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired the talks between Russia, China, Germany, France, Britain and Iran. He said told reporters "we have made substantial progress" though there were "still things to be worked out." Chinese diplomat Wang Qun was paraphrased by Xinhua as saying "there is still some distance away from the goal of reaching an agreement."