LAUSANNE: Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme grew frantic on Saturday amid signs of discord, with the French and German foreign ministers joining US Secretary of State John Kerry in talks with Tehran’s top diplomat ahead of an end-of-March deadline for a preliminary deal.
With just four days to go until that target, negotiators in the Swiss town of Lausanne were meeting multiple times in various formats to produce what they hope will be an outline of an agreement that can become the basis for a comprehensive deal to be reached by the end of June.
In another nod to the fast-approaching deadline, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to emphasise the importance of reaching an agreement.
Iranian negotiator Majid Takht-e Ravanchi denied a news report that the sides were close to agreement on a text, and other officials spoke of remaining obstacles, including Iranian resistance to limits on research and development and demands for more speedy and broad relief from international sanctions.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters as he arrived that the talks have been “long and difficult. We’ve advanced on certain issues, not yet enough on others”. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, meanwhile, suggested the blame for any impasses lies with the US and its partners. “In negotiations, both sides must show flexibility,” he wrote on Twitter.
“We have and are ready to make a good deal for all”.
Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015
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