(Bloomberg) -- An agreement is possible in Iran’s nucleartalks with world powers, both sides said on Saturday, even asthe Islamic Republic’s leader said a deal that won’t guaranteethe immediate removal of sanctions would be “unacceptable.”
After six days of discussions in Lausanne, Switzerland,ended without a deal on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry said “substantial progress” had been made. Negotiatorsfrom the U.S. and five other nations are seeking to ensure thatIran’s nuclear program is peaceful in exchange for relief fromsanctions that have hobbled Iran’s economy.
“We have not yet reached the finish line, but make nomistake, we have the opportunity to try to get this right,”Kerry said Saturday in Lausanne, next to the palatial 19thcentury hotel where talks took place. “It’s a matter ofpolitical will and tough decision-making.”
Stopping at London’s Heathrow Airport Saturday on his wayback to Washington, Kerry met with his European counterparts andFederica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief,to discuss the state of negotiations.
The two sides have given themselves until March 31 to agreeon the framework of an accord. The talks have triggeredpolitical wrangling in the U.S., where critics of PresidentBarack Obama have accused him of ignoring Iran’s support forinternational terrorism and rushing to mend ties with a nationthat they say seeks to destroy Israel.
‘Final Step’
There were “some novelties in this round ofnegotiations,” Wang Qun, chief negotiator for China, saidwithout elaborated. He praised the “earnest attitude” and“innovative” thinking in this week’s talks.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed the U.S. and othernegotiators, which also include diplomats from France, Germany,Britain, and Russia, for the end of Friday’s talks. He said hiscountry was determined to clinch a deal, state-run IRNA newsservice reported Saturday.
“It’s possible to reach an agreement, and there is nothingthat cannot be resolved,” Rouhani was quoted as saying. “Thecoming days or weeks will be very tough as taking the final stepis always somewhat difficult.”
Still, Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speechmarking the Persian New Year that the U.S. had “cheated”during the negotiations and that the world powers’ proposal ofreducing sanctions only in the months following any potentialagreement would be a deal-breaker.
He said the crowd in the city of Mashhad, some of whomshouted “Death to America,” was right to denounce the U.S. andaccused it of trying to divide Iran’s people and its government.
“Our president has expressly said that the removal ofsanctions has to take place immediately when an agreement isreached,” Khamenei said. “The U.S. keeps repeating that we’llsign a deal with Iran and see if it abides, then we’ll removethe sanctions: this is wrong and unacceptable.”
High Stakes
During a tour of the International Olympic Committee museumin Lausanne, IOC President Thomas Bach presented Kerry with apen bearing the IOC symbol of international understanding. Hesaid he hoped Kerry might be able to use it next week to sign“something important,” a reference to a nuclear agreement.Kerry was headed to London, where he was due to meet his Germanand French counterparts, as well as European Union foreignpolicy chief Federica Mogherini. He said the negotiations wouldmeet again next week in Lausanne.
“The stakes are high and the issues are complicated,highly technical and all interrelated,” Kerry said. “We don’twant just any deal.”
Earlier, Kerry embraced the visibly distressed HosseinFereydoun, Rouhani’s brother, who’d just learned that his motherhad died. The act of personal diplomacy injected a moment ofempathy into the strained relations between two governments thathave been at odds for 36 years.
Personal Diplomacy
While Fereydoun appeared to welcome Kerry’s gesture,according to photos published online in Iran and credited to theIranian Students’ News Agency, the image risks igniting a fieryreaction from hard-liners in Tehran, Washington and Israel whooppose a deal and are suspicious of U.S. motives.
After Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took a15-minute stroll with Kerry in Geneva in January, he wasassailed at home for betraying the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Thehead of Iran’s paramilitary Basij force, Mohammad Reza Naghdi,accused Zarif of “amateurishness,” and Javad Naghavi Hosseini,the spokesman for the parliament’s national security and foreignpolicy committee, compared the stroll to treason.
Negotiations will resume in the second half of next weekafter a break for Persian New Year, French Foreign MinisterLaurent Fabius told Europe1 radio on Saturday.
Robust Accord
“If we don’t have a serious accord, then neighboringcountries will say ‘why don’t we get nuclear weapons,’” Fabiussaid. “It’s in everyone’s interest that we have a robustaccord, even Iran’s, because otherwise it’s proliferation.”
The international negotiators have set an end-June targetdate to sign annexes detailing the steps Iran must take to limitits nuclear capacity and permit international inspections inexchange for relief from the United Nations, EU and U.S.sanctions that have cut oil revenue and battered its economy.
A Russian official who spoke on condition of anonymity saidthe American team put a new suggestion on the table Saturdaythat seemed to please the Iranian representatives, who said theywould take the proposal back to Tehran. The official declined todescribe the nature of the U.S. offer.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said thelength of an agreement, the pace of sanctions relief andinternational monitoring remain points of contention. Any draftof a final agreement wouldn’t be circulated until closer to theJune 30 deadline, he said in an interview.
To contact the reporters on this story:Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Lausanne, Switzerland at
ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net;Kambiz Foroohar in Lausanne, Switzerland at kforoohar@bloomberg.net;Golnar Motevalli in Tehran at gmotevalli@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.netLarry Liebert
After six days of discussions in Lausanne, Switzerland,ended without a deal on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry said “substantial progress” had been made. Negotiatorsfrom the U.S. and five other nations are seeking to ensure thatIran’s nuclear program is peaceful in exchange for relief fromsanctions that have hobbled Iran’s economy.
“We have not yet reached the finish line, but make nomistake, we have the opportunity to try to get this right,”Kerry said Saturday in Lausanne, next to the palatial 19thcentury hotel where talks took place. “It’s a matter ofpolitical will and tough decision-making.”
Stopping at London’s Heathrow Airport Saturday on his wayback to Washington, Kerry met with his European counterparts andFederica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief,to discuss the state of negotiations.
The two sides have given themselves until March 31 to agreeon the framework of an accord. The talks have triggeredpolitical wrangling in the U.S., where critics of PresidentBarack Obama have accused him of ignoring Iran’s support forinternational terrorism and rushing to mend ties with a nationthat they say seeks to destroy Israel.
‘Final Step’
There were “some novelties in this round ofnegotiations,” Wang Qun, chief negotiator for China, saidwithout elaborated. He praised the “earnest attitude” and“innovative” thinking in this week’s talks.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed the U.S. and othernegotiators, which also include diplomats from France, Germany,Britain, and Russia, for the end of Friday’s talks. He said hiscountry was determined to clinch a deal, state-run IRNA newsservice reported Saturday.
“It’s possible to reach an agreement, and there is nothingthat cannot be resolved,” Rouhani was quoted as saying. “Thecoming days or weeks will be very tough as taking the final stepis always somewhat difficult.”
Still, Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speechmarking the Persian New Year that the U.S. had “cheated”during the negotiations and that the world powers’ proposal ofreducing sanctions only in the months following any potentialagreement would be a deal-breaker.
He said the crowd in the city of Mashhad, some of whomshouted “Death to America,” was right to denounce the U.S. andaccused it of trying to divide Iran’s people and its government.
“Our president has expressly said that the removal ofsanctions has to take place immediately when an agreement isreached,” Khamenei said. “The U.S. keeps repeating that we’llsign a deal with Iran and see if it abides, then we’ll removethe sanctions: this is wrong and unacceptable.”
High Stakes
During a tour of the International Olympic Committee museumin Lausanne, IOC President Thomas Bach presented Kerry with apen bearing the IOC symbol of international understanding. Hesaid he hoped Kerry might be able to use it next week to sign“something important,” a reference to a nuclear agreement.Kerry was headed to London, where he was due to meet his Germanand French counterparts, as well as European Union foreignpolicy chief Federica Mogherini. He said the negotiations wouldmeet again next week in Lausanne.
“The stakes are high and the issues are complicated,highly technical and all interrelated,” Kerry said. “We don’twant just any deal.”
Earlier, Kerry embraced the visibly distressed HosseinFereydoun, Rouhani’s brother, who’d just learned that his motherhad died. The act of personal diplomacy injected a moment ofempathy into the strained relations between two governments thathave been at odds for 36 years.
Personal Diplomacy
While Fereydoun appeared to welcome Kerry’s gesture,according to photos published online in Iran and credited to theIranian Students’ News Agency, the image risks igniting a fieryreaction from hard-liners in Tehran, Washington and Israel whooppose a deal and are suspicious of U.S. motives.
After Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took a15-minute stroll with Kerry in Geneva in January, he wasassailed at home for betraying the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Thehead of Iran’s paramilitary Basij force, Mohammad Reza Naghdi,accused Zarif of “amateurishness,” and Javad Naghavi Hosseini,the spokesman for the parliament’s national security and foreignpolicy committee, compared the stroll to treason.
Negotiations will resume in the second half of next weekafter a break for Persian New Year, French Foreign MinisterLaurent Fabius told Europe1 radio on Saturday.
Robust Accord
“If we don’t have a serious accord, then neighboringcountries will say ‘why don’t we get nuclear weapons,’” Fabiussaid. “It’s in everyone’s interest that we have a robustaccord, even Iran’s, because otherwise it’s proliferation.”
The international negotiators have set an end-June targetdate to sign annexes detailing the steps Iran must take to limitits nuclear capacity and permit international inspections inexchange for relief from the United Nations, EU and U.S.sanctions that have cut oil revenue and battered its economy.
A Russian official who spoke on condition of anonymity saidthe American team put a new suggestion on the table Saturdaythat seemed to please the Iranian representatives, who said theywould take the proposal back to Tehran. The official declined todescribe the nature of the U.S. offer.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said thelength of an agreement, the pace of sanctions relief andinternational monitoring remain points of contention. Any draftof a final agreement wouldn’t be circulated until closer to theJune 30 deadline, he said in an interview.
To contact the reporters on this story:Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Lausanne, Switzerland at
ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net;Kambiz Foroohar in Lausanne, Switzerland at kforoohar@bloomberg.net;Golnar Motevalli in Tehran at gmotevalli@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.netLarry Liebert
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