Teheran blames West for lack of deal in Geneva

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back at US Secretary of State John Kerry late on Tuesday and blamed divisions between Western powers for the failure of talks in Geneva last week over Teheran’s disputed nuclear program.

Responding to remarks by Kerry in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Zarif said that blaming Iran only served to undermine confidence in the negotiations, which are set for another round on Nov 20.

The United States, the European Union and Iran worked together intensively for months on a proposal to help end the 10-year standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, diplomats said, but talks in Geneva between Teheran and six world powers ended on Saturday without agreement.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris could not accept a “fool’s game” — in other words, a weak deal with Iran.

Russia meanwhile on Tuesday denied Iran was to blame for the failure to agree to a historic deal on its nuclear program, implying the fault was due to disunity among the six world powers.

“The draft joint document suited the Iranian side. But since decisions at negotiations are taken by consensus, it was not possible to make a final deal,” a Russian Foreign Ministry source said in comments carried by all Russia’s main news agencies.

“And this was not the fault of the Iranians,” the source added.

The source rejected the interpretation of Kerry, who said that the six world powers known as the P5+1 were unified at the talks and it was the Iranians who would not take the proposal.

“Such an interpretation simplifies to an extreme and even distorts what happened in Geneva,” the source said.

Diplomats from other Western nations at first reacted angrily, accusing the French of trying to upstage the other powers and of causing unnecessary trouble for the talks.

On Monday, however, Kerry said the major powers were “unified on Saturday when we presented a proposal to the Iranians, and the French signed off on it, we signed off on it, and everybody agreed it was a fair proposal. There was unity, but Iran couldn’t take it at that particular moment; they weren’t able to accept that particular thing.”

Zarif also denied the Iranian side was to blame.

“Mr Secretary, was it Iran that gutted over half of a US draft Thursday night and publicly commented against it Friday morning?” Zarif asked on Twitter.

“No amount of spinning can change what happened within 5+1 in Geneva from 6 pm Thursday to 5:45 pm Saturday. But it can further erode confidence,” he tweeted.