Nuke talks near close, envoys say gaps wide

“I see that Germany and France are really serious about reaching an agreement,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“I see that Germany and France are really serious about reaching an agreement,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Foreign ministers from nations negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran joined talks on Saturday as negotiators suggested they are still far from bridging their differences.

photo

AP

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (left) and Secretary of State John Kerry ready Saturday for continued talks on Iran’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met early in the day with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif before extended sessions with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his counterpart from Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The French and German diplomats made clear that they had gone to Lausanne not just to formalize an agreement but to help with negotiations that are floundering.

"I am coming here with the desire to move toward a robust agreement," Fabius said on his arrival. "We have made progress on certain issues but not enough on others."

Steinmeier said the talks are in their "decisive days."

"The endgame of the long negotiations has begun," he said. "And here, with a view of the Swiss mountains, I'm reminded that as one sees the cross on the summit, the final meters are the most difficult but also the decisive ones. That's what has to be done here in the coming hours and days. I can only hope that in view of what has been achieved over the last 12 months that the attempt for a final agreement here will not be abandoned."

Kerry and U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz met for a third day with Zarif and Iran's nuclear energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi.

The U.S. State Department said "serious but difficult work" remained for negotiators, with the pace of discussions expected to intensify as "we assess if an understanding is possible."

Zarif, meanwhile, suggested the blame for any impasses lies with the U.S. 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. We await our counterparts' readiness."

Salehi described one or two issues as becoming "twisted." He told Iran's ISNA news agency that the sides were working to resolve the difficulties.

The foreign ministers from Britain, Russia and China are expected today.

"We now are standing at the threshold of a political resolution and a collective political impulse," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. "I think these chances [of an agreement] significantly exceed 50 percent."

In Washington on Friday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest put the chance of success at 50-50.

Diplomats at the talks said their presence does not necessarily mean a deal is almost done.

Steinmeier avoided predictions of an outcome, saying only that a nuclear deal could help ease Mideast tensions.

After meeting with Fabius, Zarif said enough progress has been made to start working toward a draft accord.

"We discussed all issues that need to be resolved and I think we made progress. Moving forward, I think we can, in fact, make the necessary progress to be able to resolve all the issues and start writing them down," Zarif said in the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel after the meeting.

Asked whether he agreed with Zarif's evaluation that they had an "excellent meeting," Fabius replied, "We're working." He didn't answer further questions.

"They have realized that sanctions pressure and an agreement will not go together," Zarif said. "I see that Germany and France are really serious about reaching an agreement."

Diplomats are still wrangling over how to define the accord and which details to release, three Western diplomats said Thursday. While U.S. officials insist that any understanding needs hard numbers and details, the Iranian delegation prefers to hold off on specifics until the technical annexes of the agreement are finished, according to the officials.

The negotiators are facing a deadline of midnight Tuesday for reaching a broad agreement that would outline the conditions for a final deal on limits to Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing international sanctions. An interim agreement does not expire until June 30, so they have three more months to iron out many details.

Progress has been made on the main issue: the future of Iran's uranium enrichment program. It can produce material for energy, science and medicine but also for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.

The sides tentatively have agreed that Iran would run no more than 6,000 centrifuges at its main enrichment site for at least 10 years. After that, restrictions would slowly ease over five years on that program and others Tehran could use to make a bomb.

The fate of a fortified underground bunker previously used for uranium enrichment also appears closer to resolution.

Officials have told The Associated Press that the U.S. may allow Iran to run hundreds of centrifuges at the Fordo bunker in exchange for limits on centrifuge work and research and development at other sites. The Iranians would not be allowed to do work that could lead to an atomic bomb, and the site would be subject to international inspections.

Instead of uranium, any centrifuges permitted at Fordo would be fed elements used in medicine, industry or science, the officials said.

Since the talks began in earnest almost 1½ years ago, the negotiators have talked up to the deadlines and beyond, only to conclude by announcing an extension of the interim agreement and a new deadline. President Barack Obama has said there will be no extension this time, although failure to reach an agreement leaves the interim deal intact for three months. If there is no deal, it would be up to Obama to decide what steps to take next.

The talks are snagged over a number of fundamental "gaps," including how much nuclear research and development Iran would be permitted and the pace at which international sanctions against it could be lifted.

Iran wants to continue research so it can modernize its uranium-enriching centrifuges, which use 1970s technology. It insists that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, and its leaders say Islam forbids them to build nuclear weapons.

Iran also wants to see sanctions eased and lifted fairly swiftly. The United States and its negotiating partners are holding out for a gradual easing of sanctions, linked to the pace at which Iran allows international inspections of its uranium facilities, mines and mills, and otherwise complies with an agreement.

Kerry wants to return to Washington with an agreement that the administration can defend before skeptics in Congress, showing that the considerable effort his office has invested in the talks produced a long-lasting, verifiable deal to ensure that Iran does not build nuclear weapons.

The United States is adamant that any deal provide a one-year "breakout" time, meaning that, through limitations and open inspections, the agreement ensures that it would take at least a full year for Iran to amass enough weapons-grade materials to build a bomb. Many factors are involved in that, including the number and efficiency of centrifuges, and negotiators say any compromise on one factor requires an offset elsewhere.

Any deal is expected to last for at least 10 years, although the French want a longer time frame. French diplomats have said they would prefer to keep negotiating even if they do not have an agreement by Tuesday.

In addition, questions persist about how Iran's compliance with an agreement would be monitored.

Fabius said France was not yet satisfied on that point.

Information for this article was contributed by Carol Morello and Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post; by George Jahn and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press; and by Jonathan Tirone, Ladane Nasseri, Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Gregory Viscusi, Kambiz Foroohar and Henry Meyer of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 03/29/2015

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