On 9th day, Kerry says Iran nuke talks could go either way
Tuesday deadline looms
VIENNA — Nine days into marathon nuclear talks, U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said the diplomatic efforts “could go either way,” cutting off all potential pathways for an Iranian atomic bomb or ending without an agreement that American officials have sometimes described as the only alternative to war.
The EU’s top foreign policy off icial, Federica Mogherini, said agreement was “very close.” But Kerry said there was still a ways to go.
World powers and Iran are hoping to clinch a deal by Tuesday, setting a decade of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and granting Iran significant relief from international sanctions. Kerry met for 3 ½ hours on Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as top diplomats from the five other negotiating countries planned to return to Austria’s capital later in the evening.
The talks had appeared to be moving forward. On Saturday, diplomats reported tentative agreement on the speed and scope of sanctions relief for Iran in the accord, even as issues such as inspection guidelines and limits on Iran’s nuclear research and development remained contentious.
Tuesday’s deadline is the latest that has been set for a comprehensive pact that would replace the interim deal world powers and Iran reached in November 2013. That package was extended three times, most recently on June 30, and Kerry appea red to be pa r tly addressing critics of the diplomacy in the United States who’ve argued that President Barack Obama’s administration has been too conciliatory over the course of the negotiations.
Obama and U.S. officials say that is untrue. But they’ve also fiercely defended their willingness to allow the Iranians to maintain signif icant nuclear infrastructure, on the argument that a diplomatic agreement is preferable to military conflict.
Kerr y sa id t hat “i f we don’t have a deal, if there’s absolute intransigence with the things that are important, President Obama has always said we would walk away.
“It’s not what anybody wants,” he said. “What I have said from the moment I became involved in this: We want a good agreement, only a good agreement and we are not going to shave anywhere at the margins in order just to get an agreement.”
Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that he had spoken to Kerry Saturday and voiced his concerns about rushing too quickly toward a settlement.
“Well, obviously they’re very anxious,” the Tennessee Republican said of Obama administration officials. “I mean, I think they look at this as a legacy issue.”
We can see the instrument’s stage is very close to the stage it was 500 years ago.”
Catalina Vicens, Chilean-born musician