WASHINGTON: The White House said on Tuesday that marathon nuclear talks with Iran were likely to continue, although a deadline set earlier expired at midnight.

“They’re going to continue these conversations, if necessary, as long as the conversations continue to be productive,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “It’s possible the talks could continue into tomorrow.”

Mr Earnest told a news briefing in Washington that the end of deadline for an agreement did not mean the end of talks. Ending the talks at this stage “doesn’t make sense, if we are getting serious engagement from the other side”, he said. “If we are making progress towards the finish line, then we should keep going.”

Also read: Israeli PM warns US against Iran nuclear deal

The P5+1 group and Iran had earlier agreed to conclude a framework agreement by March 31 to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme and relax international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Officials of the P5+1 group, which includes the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, told reporters earlier on Tuesday that despite some difficulties they were hopeful of concluding a deal soon.

Diplomatic sources in Washington acknowledged that both sides still had disagreements over some key issues, which include uranium enrichment, storage of the enriched material and limits on Iran’s nuclear research and development.

Iran is also demanding an earlier and complete lifting of economic sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. The P5+1, however, are advocating a gradual approach linked to the compliance of the proposed agreement.

As negotiators tried to sort out the issues, the White House launched a PR offensive at home to sell the expected deal to the American public.

This includes “high level, robust engagement” with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers “regarding the deal”, a White House official told CNN.

The campaign would focus on preventing new sanctions that the Republican-dominated Congress seems determined to bring within weeks.

Iran has made it clear that new sanctions would end the deal, an argument the White House is now using to prevent expected anti-Iran legislation.

President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any bill proposing new sanctions against Iran.

The Obama administration wants the lawmakers to give international negotiators some time to fine-tune the details of a final agreement. The deadline for a final agreement is set for the end of June.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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