Ministers go back to Vienna for final Iran nuke deal push

VIENNA (AFP) — Foreign ministers from major powers are expected to go back to Vienna this week to score a huge diplomatic success by nailing down a nuclear deal with Iran, after almost two years of intense effort.

Ahead of Tuesday’s final deadline, there were signs that inside the neoclassical palace-turned-hotel hosting the past eight days of talks by armies of technical and legal experts, the end may be in sight.

” Extending the talks is not an option for anyone... We are trying to finish the job,” Iran’s lead negotiator Abbas Araghchi told Iranian

TV late Saturday, saying there was a “positive atmosphere.”

But he added: “If we reach an agreement that respects our red lines then there will be a deal. Otherwise we prefer to return home to Tehran empty-handed.”

Diplomats said that on one of the thorniest issues — sanctions relief for Iran — a compromise may have been worked out, at least among the experts thrashing out the complex final accord.

“There are still differences,” an Iranian offi cial insisted, however, while a Western diplomat said that on UN sanctions — as opposed to EU and US ones — there was “no agreement yet.”

Under the mooted accord, building on a framework deal from April, a complex web of sanctions suffocating the Iranian economy will be progressively lifted if Tehran massively scales down its nuclear program for at least a decade.

This is aimed at extending the time needed by Iran to produce enough nuclear material for one bomb — it denies any such aim — to at least a year from several months at present.

Coupled with more stringent UN inspections, this will give ample time to stop any such “breakout” attempt, while keeping a modest civilian nuclear program in place in Iran, the powers believe.

The deal between Iran and the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — would end a standoff dating back to 2002 when dissidents first revealed undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran.