Kerry taking Iran talks 'progress' to Obama

VIENNA -- After three days of intensive talks with his Iranian counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that "tangible progress" had been made in negotiations on Iran's nuclear program and he would return to Washington to consult with President Barack Obama over whether to extend a Sunday deadline for a final agreement.

Kerry said "very real gaps" remained, but he acknowledged that Iran had complied with all of its commitments under a temporary agreement that took effect in January. One of his advisers said Kerry likely wanted to extend the talks by weeks or months.

As the July 20 deadline to wrap up the six-month talks approaches, an accord is not yet in hand. The temporary agreement allows for an extension of the talks for up to six months, but some in Obama's negotiating team have suggested that a shorter extension might be more fruitful.

At a short news conference in Vienna, Kerry said, "I am returning to Washington today to consult with President Obama and with leaders in Congress over coming days about the prospects for a comprehensive agreement as well as a path forward if we do not achieve one by the 20th of July, including the question whether or not more time is warranted."

Immediately after his news conference Kerry met with Catherine Ashton, the foreign-policy chief for the European Union, and then with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, his fourth such meeting in three days.

Kerry declined to comment on the proposal that Zarif outlined for what would amount to an extension of the current short-term agreement for a number of years. Under Zarif's proposal, Iran would not have to dismantle any of its existing centrifuges, but would use a combination of technologies and inspection to provide assurances they could not produce weapons-grade material.

Kerry said that he would not negotiate in public.

"The real negotiation is not going to be done in the public eye," he said. "These are tough negotiations."

Zarif's proposal would essentially freeze Iran's capacity to produce enriched uranium for several years, but Iran would be free to keep up research and development of highly sophisticated centrifuges, and put them in place after the agreement would expire.

Zarif wants a short agreement, of three to seven years. The United States and its allies insist on limitations on Iran for at least a decade, preferably longer.

The Iranian proposal runs counter to the goal that Kerry and others laid out last year: a lasting solution that would eliminate the possibility that Iran could have a "threshold" nuclear capability, one it could exercise with one last push for a bomb. The whole negotiation is about adding substantially to the time it would take Iran to produce a nuclear device if it reneged on the agreement.

Gary Samore, a former senior official on the staff of Obama's National Security Council, and head of an advocacy group called United Against Nuclear Iran, said Zarif's proposal was "not enough for a deal but enough for an extension of the negotiations."

Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear monitor, said Zarif's proposal would not add to the time Iran would need to break out of an accord and produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

"What Zarif suggests is actually to maintain a status quo," Heinonen said. "Thus I do not see that this proposal opens any avenues for a deal."

A Section on 07/16/2014

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