WASHINGTON: The White House said on Wednesday that the P5+1 nations were ready to walk away from the nuclear talks with Iran if they did not see progress.

The US State Department, however, said that the chief US negotiator, Secretary of State John Kerry, and his counterparts will stay in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the talks until at least Thursday morning.

Know more: White House hints at extending deadline for nuclear deal with Iran

“If we are in a situation where we sense that the talks have stalled, then yes, the United States and the international community is prepared to walk away,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told a news briefing in Washington.

But he also clarified that this was not a threat to end the talks.

“As long as we are in a position of convening serious talks that are making progress … we would not arbitrarily or abruptly end them,” Mr Earnest said.

Stressing that the negotiations were not an “open-ended” process, the White House official reminded Iran that the talks had “essentially reached the end”.

“It is time for Iran to demonstrate whether or not they’re willing to make those serious commitments” that they promised earlier, he added.

Since early last year, five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – and Germany have been negotiating a deal with Iran to prevent it from making nuclear weapons. They had set a March 31 deadline for concluding a framework agreement and a final agreement by June this year.

The deadline expired on Tuesday but the negotiators have continued their marathon talks, hoping to conclude the deal in the next few days.

The White House explained that it still hoped for a successful conclusion because it had been involved in the talks for more than year and had “very clearly” explained to Iran what kind of commitments they expected.

The two sides still disagree on a timetable for lifting the sanctions on Iran, and on restraining Iran’s research and development capabilities.

Asked if the US was willing to further extend the deadline as the extended deadline also ended on Wednesday, Mr Earnest said: “Any type of schedule update like that would come from the negotiators.”

The Obama administration has 12 days to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran before the Republican-dominated Congress returns to Washington to initiate new sanctions against Tehran.

On Tuesday night, US President Barack Obama held a video teleconference with members of his national security team to discuss the P5+1 negotiations with Iran.

Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and a dozen other key officials attended.

“The president received an update on the current status of the negotiations from Secretaries Kerry and Moniz … and thanked the team for their continuing efforts”, said National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan.

On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers, who are trying to prevent a deal with Iran, urged the Obama administration to abandon the talks.

“You have to be willing to walk away from the table and to reapply leverage to Iran,” Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, told Fox News.

“And the fact that … we’re still sitting in Switzerland negotiating when three of our negotiating partners have already left just demonstrates to Iran that they can continue to demand dangerous concessions from the West,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015

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