U.S. Resisting Extension
of Talks
U.S. resists extension of
nuclear talks with Iran beyond the 24 November deadline and wants to strike a
deal by then.
“We have not discussed an
extension. We believe in keeping the pressure on ourselves,” a senior State
Department official was quoted as saying on Wednesday, after six hours of talks between
Secretary of State John Kerry, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif
apparently yielded no major breakthrough. (AFP, 15 October)
“Until everything is
agreed, nothing is agreed, and you can get 98 percent of the way, and the last
two percent may kill the entire deal,” said the American official, believed to be
Wendy Sherman, State Department’s Under Secretary for Political Affairs and chief nuclear negotiator
It was unclear whether
Kerry and Zarif would resume their talks on Thursday. However, Zarif will meet
with negotiators from six major powers during the plenary session of the talks
in Vienna.
Earlier today, Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said any extension of nuclear talks
increases risk of total failure. He also was suggesting to the Iranian
negotiating team that political will on the part of Iran will determine the
talks’ outcome.
Russian FM Lavrov, according to Reuters:
ReplyDeleteLavrov, speaking on Tuesday in Paris, where he met Kerry, said he was "sure that a compromise is possible" in the negotiations with Iran.
"I can’t guarantee you that it would be reached by November 24. This date is not sacred," he told Russian television.
indicating again that the Russians understand that Iran can't muster the will to make a deal that's acceptable to the other parties.
Deleteit's going to be an epic failure for Iran's people if their ultra-reactionary zealots don't climb down...quickly.
the people can't eat crude oil and enriched uranium........ and they might not even be able to build more nice new bus depots!!!!
Mark,
DeleteI believe Lavrov's deputy and chief nuclear negotiator, Sergei Yabkov, iss correct in saying that an extension of talks will increase the risk of total failure. The 24 November date is not sacred, but the two sides are better off reaching an agreement by then. Missing it increases the risk of failure.
AnonymousOctober 15, 2014 at 10:06 PM
ReplyDeleteA deal has to be acceptable to both parties otherwise its little different to a surrender,which from the sound of it is what you want iran to do,perhaps its the west that just cant bring itself to say "yes" to a deal
yes, I want Iran to surrender its nuclear weapons development program in exchange for having the sanctions program dismantled.
Deleteas Iran insists that it really doesn't want to assemble nuclear weapons, it's not that much of a sacrifice.
AnonymousOctober 17, 2014 at 9:00 AM
DeleteThe level of ignorance in your post is truly shocking,for a start Iran doesnt have a nuclear weapons development program,what the west wants is to roll back irans civilian nuclear program and to reduce its enrichment capacity to almost nothing,far from it being in your words "not that much of a sacrifice" it would in fact be ripping the heart out of irans civilian nuclear power program.What on earth do you think these negotiations have been about?,iran giving up some mythical nuclear weapons program?
Iran sure as hell has a nuclear weapons development program..... what Iran doesn't have is a fully mature program that has assembled nuclear weapons.
DeleteIran has a tiny civilian nuclear power program consisting of a single power plant and there are no others currently under construction. barely a fig leaf